The, Encampment without the
City (Cairo)
From painting by Theodore Frere
pp
Iftsfnrg 0f
Pii
By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws,
and Fellow of Queen s College, Oxford ; Member of
the Institute and Professor at the College of France
Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford
Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of
the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund
VOL. VII
Containing over Tivel ve Hundred
Colored Plates and Illustrations
THE G R O L I K R S O C I E T Y
PUBLISHERS A A A LONDON
r JUN 1 2
Printed by
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
LONDON
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
PAGE
Assur-nazir-pal (885-860 B.C.) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825 B. c.) -
The Kingdom of Urartu and its Conquering Princes : Menuas and
Argistis
CHAPTER II.
TIGLATH -PILESER III. AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE,
FROM 745 TO 722 B. c.
Failure of Urartu and Reconquest of Syria Egypt Again United under
Ethiopian Auspices Pionkhi --The Downfall of Damascus, of
Babylon, and of Israel 175
CHAPTER III.
SARGON OF ASSYRIA (722-705 B. C.)
Sargon as a Warrior and as a Builder .337
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Encampment without the City, Cairo .... Frontispiece
A mountain raid of Assyrian cavalry .......
An Assyrian horseman armed with the sword .....
A mounted Assyrian archer with his attendant, charging . . .
The movable sow making a breach in the wall of a fortress . . 12
The turreted battering-ram attacking the walls of a town .
The besieged endeavoring to cripple or destroy the battering-ram
The Escarpments of the Zab ..... . . 17
The site of Shadikanni at Arban, on the Khabur .....
Enamelled brick and fragment of mural painting (Nimrod) ... 24
One of the winged bulls found at Arban ....... 24
Stele from Arban .... 25
The Zab below the passes of Alan, the ancient Ilaniu .... 37
Bas-relief from a building at Sinjirli ........ 52
Jibrin, a village of conical huts, on the Plateau of Aleppo . . .53
The war-chariot of the KMti of the Ninth Century B. c. . . . 54
The Assyrian war-chariot of the Ninth Century B. c. . . . . 55
A king of the Khati hunting a lion in his chariot ..... 56
The god Hadad 57
Religious scene displaying Egyptian features ...... 58
The mounds of Calah .......... 67
Stele of Assur-Nazir-Pal at Calah ........ 68
The winged bulls of Assur-Nazir-Pal . . . . . . .70
Glazed tile from palace of Calah 71
Lion from Assur-Nazir-Pal s palace . .72
A corner of the ruined palace of Assur-Nazir-Pal . . . .74
Shalmaneser III. ........... 77
The two peaks of Mount Ararat . 79
Fragment of a votive shield of Urartian work ...... 83
vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Site of an Urartian town at Toprah-Kaleh 84
The ruins of a palace of Urartu at Toprah-Kaleh ..... 85
Temple of Khaldis, at Muzazir, pillaged by the Assyrians .... 87
Assyrian soldiers carrying off or destroying the furniture of an Urartian
temple 89
Shalmaneser III. crossing the mountains in his chariot .... 90
The people of Shugunia fighting against the Assyrians .... 93
Prisoners from Shugunia, with their arms tied and yokes on their necks . 94
Sacrifice offered by Shalmaneser III. to the gods of Lake Van, and erec
tion of a triumphal stele . . . . . . . . .95
Costumes found in the Fifth Tomb of the Kings to the East. Thebes . 97
Shua, King of Gilzan, bringing a war-horse fully caparisoned to Shal
maneser 100
Dromedaries from GilzSn 101
Tribute from Gilzan 102
Tribute from Garparuda, King of the Patina 102
Mobite stone or stele of Mesha 123
Jehu, King of Israel, sends presents to Shalmaneser 131
Part of Israel s tribute to Shalmaneser .132
A mountain village . . . . . . . . . . .134
Elephant and monkeys brought as a tribute to Nineveh by the people of
. Muzri 137
Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III 141
Stag and lions of the country of Sukhi 142
The bronze-covered gates of Balawat 144
Monolith of Samsi-Ramman IV. 148
Triumphal stele of Menuas at Kelishin 156
The Gardens and -Hill of Dhuspas or Van .160
Urartian stele on the rocks of Ak-Keupru 164
Combat before the walls of a fortress ....... 175
A vista of the Asiatic Steppe 180
Specimens of Hebrew pottery . . . . . . . . .188
Israelites of the higher class in the time of Shalmaneser III. . . . 189
Judpean peasants . . . . . . . . . . .190
Women and children of Judaea . 191
Prayer at sunset 201
Egyptian altar at Deir-el-Bahari 203
Principal peak of Mount Bikni (Demavend) 218
View of the Mountains which guard the southern border of Urartu . . 221
Bird s-eye view of the Royal Castle of Zinzirli as restored . . . 227
Tiglath-Pileser III. in his state chariot ... . 232
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
PAGE
The rock and citadel of Van at the present day ...... 235
Entrance to the modern citadel of Van from the westward . . . 236
Hebrew inscription on the Siloam aqueduct . . . . . .241
Bronze statuette of Osorkon I. ......... 242
The great temple of Bubastis during Naville s excavations . . . 243
Gate of the festival-hall at Bubastis ........ 245
Small bronze sphinx of Siamun . . . . . . . . .248
Ruins of the temple at Khninsu after Naville s excavations . . . 249
King Petubastis at prayer .......... 253
View of a part of the ruins of Napata ....... 255
Gebel-Barkal, the sacred mountain of Napata 256
Ruins of the Temple of Amon at Napata . . . . . . . 257
A nearly pure Ethiopian type ......... 260
Mixed negro and Ethiopian type ........ 260
Ruins of Oxyrrhynchos and the modern town of Bahnesa .... 263
King Namroti leading a horse to Pionkhi 266
Ruins of the temple of Thoth at Hermopolis the great .... 267
King Tafnakhti presents a field to Tumu and to Bastit .... 276
Mount Hermon ............ 288
An Arab 289
Arab Meharis ridden down by the Assyrian cavalry . . . . .290
Arab School 291
A Kaldu 294
Tiglath-Pileser III. besieging a rebellious city . . . . . .312
A herd of horses brought in as tribute ....... 314
Typical Cappadocian horse . . . . . . .315
The foundation of a Bit-Khilani at Zinjirli ...... 317
Base of a column at Zinjirli . . . . . . . . .318
Stele of Bel-Harran-Beluzur .320
Manuscript on papyrus in hieroglyphics ....... 322
Sargon of Assyria and his vizier ........ 334
The Mound of Khorsabad before Botta s excavations . . . . .339
Assyrian soldiers pursuing Kalda refugees in a bed of reeds . . . 343
A reed-hut of the Bedawin of Irak ........ 344
Brick bearing the name of the Susian King Shilkhak-Inshushinak . . 346
Bas-relief of Naram-sin, transported to Susa by Shutruk-Nakhunta . . 348
The great rock bas-relief of Malamir . . . . . . . 349
laubidi of Hamath being flayed alive ....... 356
Taking of a castle in Zikartu 364
Taking of the city of Kishisim by the Assyrians . . . . . 369
x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The town of Bit-Bagaia burnt by the Assyrians 372
King Bocchoris giving judgment between two women, rival claimants to a
child . . 374
Sabaco ...... .... 375
Taking of a town in Urartu by the Assyrians .... . 378
The seal of Urzana, King of Muzazir - , . . . . .379
The Assyrians taking a Median town 381
Stele at Larnaka 396
Part of the enamelled course of a gate
Bird s-eye view of Sargon s palace at Dur-Sharrukin 402
One of the gates of the palace at Dur-Sharrukin . . . 403
One of the bronze lions from Dur-Sharrukin . . 405
A hunting expedition in the woods near Dur-Sharrukin .... 406
The Ziggurat at Dur-Sharrukiu . .... 408
Section of a bedroom in the Harem 409
Main door of the harem at Dur-Sharrukin 410
THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL
AXD
THE STRUGGLE FOR STRIA
ASSUR NAZIR-PAL (885-860 B.C.) AND SIIALMANESER III. (860-825 B.C.)
THE KINGDOM OP URARTU AND ITS CONQUERING PRINCES: MENUAS AND
ARGISTIS.
The line of Assyrian kings after Assurirba, and the Babylonian dynasties :
the war between Bammdn-nirdri III. and Shamash-mudammiq ; his victories
over Babylon; Tulculti-ninip II. (890-885 B.C.) The empire at the accession
of Assur-nazir-pal : the Assyrian army and the progress of military tactics;
cavalry, military engines; the condition of Assyria s neighbours, methods of
Assyrian conquest.
Tlie first campaigns of Assur-nazir-pal in Nairi and on the KJiabur
(885-882 B.C.) : Zamua reduced to an Assyrian province (881 B.C.) The fourth
campaign in Nairi and the war on the Euphrates (880 B.C.) ; the first conquest
of Blt-Adini Northern Syria at the opening of the IX th century : its civilisation,
arts, army, and religion The submission of the Hittite states and of the Patind :
the Assyrians reach the Mediterranean.
The empire after the tears of Assur-nazir-pal Building of the palace at
Calah: Assyrian architecture and sculpture in the IX th century The tunnel of
VOL. VII. B
( 2 )
Negub and the palace of Balawdt The last years of Assur-nazir-pal : his cam
paign of the year 867 in Nalri The death of Assur-nazir-pal (860 B.C.) : his
character.
Shalmaneser III. (860-825 B.C.) : the state of the empire at his accession-
Urartu: its physical features, races, towns, temples, its deities Shalmaneser s
first campaign in Urartu: he penetrates as far as Lake Fan (860 B.C.) The
conquest of Bit-Adini and of Nairi (859-855 B.C.)
The attack on Damascus : the battle of Qarqar (854 B.C.) and the war
against Babylon (852-851 B.C.) Tlie alliance between Judah and Israel, the
death of Ahab (853 B.C.) ; Damascus successfully resists the attacks of Assyria
(849_846 B.C.) Moab delivered from Israel, Mesha ; the death of Ben-hadad
(Adadidri) and the accession of Hazacl ; the fall of the house of Omri Jehu
(843 B.C.) The defeat of Hazael and the homage of Jehu (842-839 B.C.).
Wars in Cilicia and in Namri (838-835 B.C.) : the last battles of Shal
maneser III. ; his buildinj ivories, the revolt of Assur-dain-palSamsi-rammdn
IV. (825-812 B.C.), his first three expeditions, his campaigns against Babylon-
Bammdnnirdri IV. (812-783 B.C.) Jehu, Athaliah, Joash : the supremacy of
Hazael over Israel and Judah Victory of Bammdn-nirdri over Mari, and the
submission of all Syria to the Assyrians (803 B.C.).
The growth of Urartu: the conquests of Menuas and Argistis I., their
victories over Assyria -Shalmaneser IV. (783-772 B.C.) Assurddn III.
(772-754 B.C.) Assur-nirdri III. (754-745 B.C.) The downfall of Assyria
and the triumph of Urartu.
A iiOUXTAIX RAID OF ASSYRIAN CAVALRY. 1
CHAPTER I
THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE STRUGGLE
FOR SYRIA
Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shahnaneser III. (860-825)
The kingdom of Urartu and its conquering princes :
Menuas and Argistis.
A SSYBIA was the first to reappear on the
scene of action. Less hampered by an
ancient past than Egypt and Chaldaea, she was
the sooner able to recover her strength after
any disastrous crisis, and to assume again the
offensive along the whole of her frontier line.
During the years immediately following the
ephemeral victories and reverses of Assurirba, both the
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik of the time of
Sennacherib. The initial cut, which is also by Faucher-Gudin, represents
the broken obelisk of Assur-nazir-pal, the bas-reliefs of which are as yet
unpublished.
4 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
country and its rulers are plunged in the obscurity of
oblivion. Two figures at length, though at what date is
uncertain, emerge from the darkness a certain Irbaramman
and an Assur-nadinakhe II., whom we find engaged in
building palaces and making a necropolis. They were
followed towards 950 by a Tiglath-pileser II., of whom
nothing is known but his name. 1 He in his turn was
succeeded about the year 935 by one Assurdan II., who
appears to have concentrated his energies upon public
works, for we hear of him digging a canal to supply his
capital with water, restoring the temples and fortifying
towns. Ramman-nirari III., who followed him in 912,
stands out more distinctly from the mists which envelop the
history of this period; he repaired the gate of the Tigris
and the adjoining wall at Assur, he enlarged its principal
sanctuary, reduced several rebellious provinces to obedience,
and waged a successful warfare against the neighbouring
inhabitants of Karduniash. Since the extinction of the
race of Nebuchadrezzar I., Babylon had been a prey to
civil discord and foreign invasion. The Aramaean tribes
mingled with, or contiguous to the remnants of the
Cossa3ans bordering on the Persian gulf, constituted
possibly, even at this period, the powerful nation of the
Kalda. 2 It has been supposed, not without probability,
that a certain Simashshikhu, Prince of the Country of
1 Our only knowledge of Tiglath-pileser II. is from a brick, on which he
is mentioned as being the grandfather of Ramman-nirari II.
2 The names Chaldfea and Chaldseans being ordinarily used to designate
the territoi-y and people of Babylon, I shall employ the term Kaldu or Kalda
in treating of the Aramaean tribes who constituted the actual Chaldsean
nation.
THE VICTORIES OVER BABYLOX 5
the Sea, who immediately followed the last scion of the
line of Pashe, 1 was one of their chiefs. He endeavoured
to establish order in the city, and rebuilt the temple of
the Sun destroyed by the nomads at Sippar, but at the
end of eighteen years he was assassinated. His son
Eamukinshuniu remained at the head of affairs some three
to six months ; Kashshu-nadinakhe ruled three or six years,
at the expiration of which a man of the house of Bazi,
Eulbar-shakinshumi by name, seized upon the crown. 2 His
dynasty consisted of three members, himself included, and
it was overthrown after a duration of twenty years by an
Elamite, who held authority for another seven. 3 It was a
period of calamity and distress, during which the Arabs or
the Arama3ans ravaged the country, and pillaged without
compunction not only the property of the inhabitants, but
also that of the gods. The Elamite usurper having died
The name of this prince has been read Simbarshiku by Peiser, a reading
adopted by Rost ; Simbarshiku would have been shortened into Sibir, and
we should have to identify it with that of the Sibir mentioned by Assur-
nazir-pal in his Annals, col. ii. 1. 84, as a king of Karduniash who lived before
his (Assur-nazir-pal s) time (see p. 38 of the present volume).
The name of this king may be read Edubarshakin-shumi. The house
of Bazi takes its name from an ancestor who must have founded it at some
unknown date, but who never reigned in Chaldsea. Winckler has with
reason conjectured that the name subsequently lost its meaning to the
Babylonians, and that they confused the Chaldean house of Bazi with thn
Arab country of Bazu : this may explain why in his dynasties Berosos
attributes an Arab origin to that one which comprises the short-lived line
of Bit-Bazi.
3 Our knowledge of these events is derived solely from the texts of the
Babylonian Canon published and translated by G. Smith, by Pinches, and
by Sayce. The inscription of Nabubaliddin informs us that Kashu-nadinakhe
and Eulbar-shakinshumu continued the works begun by Simashshiku in the
temple of the Sun at Sippar.
6 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
about the year 1030, a Babylonian of noble extraction
expelled the intruders, and succeeded in bringing the
larger part of the kingdom under his rule. 1 Five or six
of his descendants had passed away, and a certain Shamash-
mudammiq was feebly holding the reins of government,
when the expeditions of Raminan-nirari III. provoked war
afresh between Assyria and Babylon. The two armies
encountered each other once again on their former battle
field between the Lower Zab and the Turnat. Shamash-
mudaminiq, after being totally routed near the Yalman
mountains, did not long survive, and Naboshumishkun, who
succeeded him, showed neither more ability nor energy
than his predecessor. The Assyrians wrested from him the
fortresses of Bambala and Bagdad, dislodged him from the
positions where he had entrenched himself, and at length
took him prisoner while in flight, and condemned him to
perpetual captivity. 2 His successor abandoned to the
1 The names of the first kings of this dynasty are destroyed in the
copies of the Royal Canon which have come down to us. The three pre
ceding dynasties are restored as follows :
SIMASH-SHIKU . . . 18 years 5 months ( or according "j 1 7 years 3 months.
EAMUK!N-SIIUMU . . 5 months I to another 3 months.
KASIIU-NAD!NAKHE . . 3 years ( computation ; 6 years.
Total for the dynasty
of the Sea Country 21 years 10 months 23 years 6 months.
EULBAR-SHAKIN-SHUMU 17 years ,, 15 years.
NINIP-KUDURUSUR . . 3 years 2 years.
SHILAN!MSHUKAMUNA . 3 months 3 months.
Total for the dynasty
of Bazi . . . .20 years 3 months.
2 Shamash-mudammiq appears to have died about 900. Naboshumish
kun probably reigned only one or two years, from 900 to 899 or to 898.
The name of his successor is destroyed in the Synchronous History ; it might
TUKULTI-NINIP I. 7
Assyrians most of the districts situated on the left bank
of the Lower Zab between the Zagros mountains and the
Tigris, and peace, which was speedily secured by a double
marriage, remained unbroken for nearly half a century.
Tukulti-ninip II. was fond of fighting ; " he overthrew his
adversaries and exposed their heads upon stakes," but,
unlike his predecessor, he directed his efforts against Nairi
and the northern and western tribes. We possess no
details of his campaigns ; we can only surmise that in
six years, from 890 to 885, 1 he brought into subjection the
valley of the Upper Tigris and the rnouDtain provinces
which separate it from the Assyrian plain. Having
reached the source of the river, he carved, beside the
image of Tiglath-pileser L, the following inscription, which
may still be read upon the rock. " With the help of Assur,
Shamash, and Kamman, the gods of his religion, he reached
this spot. The lofty mountains he subjugated from the sun-
rising to its down-setting ; victorious, irresistible, he came
hither, and like unto the lightning he crossed the raging
rivers." 2
He did not live long to enjoy his triumphs, but his
be Nabubaliddin, who seems to have had a long life, but it is wiser, until
fresh light is thrown on the subject, to admit that it is some prince other
than Nabubaliddin, whose name is as yet unknown to us.
1 The parts preserved of the Eponym canon begin their record in 893,
about the end of the reign of Ramman-nirari II. The line which dis
tinguishes the two reigns from one another is drawn between the name of
the personage who corresponds to the year 890, and that of Tukulti-ninip
who corresponds to the year 889 : Tukulti-ninip II., therefore, begins his
reign in 890, and his death is six years later, in 885.
2 This inscription and its accompanying bas-relief are mentioned in the
Annals of Assur-nazirpal.
8 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AXD STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
death made no impression on the impulse given to the
fortunes of his country. The kingdom which he left to
Assur-nazir-pal, the eldest of his sons, embraced scarcely
any of the countries which had paid tribute to former
sovereigns. Besides Assyria proper, it comprised merely
those districts of Nairi which had been annexed within
his own generation ; the remainder had gradually regained
their liberty : first the outlying dependencies Cilicia,
Melitene, Northern Syria, and then the provinces nearer
the capital, the valleys of the Masios and the Zagros, the
steppes of the Khabur, and even some districts such as
Lubdi and Shupria, which had been allotted to Assyrian
colonists at various times after successful campaigns.
Nearly the whole empire had to be reconquered under
much the same conditions as in the first instance. Assyria
itself, it is true, had recovered the vitality and elasticity
of its earlier days. The people were a robust and energetic
race, devoted to their rulers, and ready to follow them
blindly and trustingly wherever they might lead. The
army, while composed chiefly of the same classes of troops
as in the time of Tiglath-pileser I., spearmen, archers,
sappers, and slingers, now possessed a new element,
whose appearance on the field of battle was to revolutionize
the whole method of warfare ; this was the cavalry, property
so called, introduced as an adjunct to the chariotry. The
number of horsemen forming this contingent was as yet
small ; like the infantry, they wore casques and cuirasses,
but were clothed with a tight-fitting loin-cloth in place
of the long kilt, the folds of which would have embarrassed
their movements. One-half of the men carried sword and
ASSYRIAN CAVALRY
9
lance, the other half sword and bow, the latter of a smaller
kind than that used by the infantry. Their horses were
bridled, and bore trappings on the forehead, but had no
saddles ; their riders rode bareback without stirrups ; they
sat far back with the chest thrown forward, their knees
AN ASSYRIAN HORSEMAN AR5IED WITH THE SWORD. 1
drawn up to grip the shoulder of the animal. Each horse
man was attended by a groom, who rode abreast of him,
and held his reins during an action, so that he might be
free to make use of his weapons. This body of cavalry,
having little confidence in its own powers, kept in close
1 Drawn by Faucher-Guclin, from a bas-relief in bronze on the gate of
Balawat. The Assyrian artist has shown the head and legs of the second
horse in profile behind the first, but he has forgotten to represent the rest
of its body, and also the man riding it.
10 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
contact with the main body of the army, and was not used
in independent manoeuvres ; it was associated with and
formed an escort to the chariotry in expeditions where
speed was essential, and where the ordinary foot soldier
A MOUNTED ASSYRIAN AECHER WITH HIS ATTENDANT, CHARGING. 1
would have hampered the movements of the charioteers. 2
The army thus reinforced was at all events more efficient,
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs of the gate
of Balawat.
2 Isolated horsemen must no doubt have existed in the Assyrian just as
in the Egyptian army, but we never find any mention of a body of cavalry in
inscriptions prior to the time of Assur-nazir-pal ; the introduction of this
new corps must consequently have taken place between the reigns of Tiglath-
pileser and Assur-nazir-pal, probably nearer the time of the latter. Assur-
nazir-pal himself seldom speaks of his cavalry, but he constantly makes
mention of the horsemen of the Aramaean and Syrian principalities, whom he
incorporated into his own army.
MILITARY TACTICS: BESIEGING ENGINES 11
if not actually more powerful, than formerly ; the discipline
maintained was as severe, the military spirit as keen, the
equipment as perfect, and the tactics as skilful as in former
times. A knowledge of engineering had improved upon
the former methods of taking towns by sapping and scaling,
and though the number of military engines was as yet
limited, the besiegers were well able, when occasion
demanded, to improvise and make use of machines capable
of demolishing even the strongest walls. 1 The Assyrians
were familiar with all the different kinds of battering-ram ;
the hand variety, which was merely a beam tipped with
iron, worked by some score of men ; the fixed ram, in
which the beam was suspended from a scaffold and moved
by means of ropes ; and lastly, the movable ram, running
on four or six wheels, which enabled it to be advanced or
withdrawn at will. The military engineers of the day
allowed full rein to their fancy in the many curious shapes
they gave to this latter engine ; for example, they gave
to the mass of bronze at its point the form of the head
of an animal, and the whole engine took at times the
form of a sow ready to root up with its snout the founda
tions of the enemy s defences. The scaffolding of the
machine was usually protected by a carapace of green
leather or some coarse woollen material stretched over it,
which broke the force of blows from projectiles : at times
1 The battering-ram had already reached such a degree of perfection
under Assur-nazir-pal, that it must have been invented some time before the
execution of the first bas-reliefs on which we see it portrayed. Its points of
resemblance to the Greek battering-ram furnished Hcefer with one of his
main arguments for placing the monuments of Khorsabad and Koyunjik as
late as the Persian or Partliian period.
12 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
it had an additional arrangement in the shape of a cupola
or turret in which archers were stationed to sweep the
face of the wall opposite to the point of attack. The
battering-rams were set up and placed in line at a short
distance from the ramparts of the besieged town ; the
THE MOVABLE SOW MAKING A BREACH IX THE WALL OF A FORTRESS. 1
ground in front of them was then levelled and a regular
causeway constructed, which was paved with bricks
wherever the soil appeared to be lacking in firmness.
These preliminaries accomplished, the engines were pushed
forward by relays of troops till they reached the required
range. The effort needed to set the ram in motion severely
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs of the gate
of Balawat.
THE BATTERING-RAM
13
taxed the strength of those engaged in the work ; for the
size of the beam was enormous, and its iron point, or the
square mass of metal at the end, was of no light weight.
The besieged did their best to cripple or, if possible,
destroy the engine as it approached them. Torches,
lighted tow, burning pitch, and stink-pots were hurled
THE TURRETED BATTERIXG-KAM ATTACKING THE WALLS OF A TOWN. 1
down upon its roofing : attempts were made to seize the
head of the ram by means of chains or hooks, so as to
prevent it from moving, or in order to drag it on to the
battlements; in some cases the garrison succeeded in
crushing the machinery with a mass of rock.. The
Assyrians, however, did not allow themselves to be dis
couraged by such trifling accidents ; they would at once
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief brought from Nimroud,
now in the British Museum.
14 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
extinguish the fire, release, by sheer force of muscle, the
beams which the enemy had secured, and if, notwith
standing all their efforts, one of the machines became
injured, they had others ready to take its place, and the
ram would be again at work after only a few minutes
THE BESIEGED ENDEAVOURING TO CRIPPLE OR DESTROY THE BATTERIXG-RAM. 1
delay. Walls, even when of burnt brick or faced with
small stones, stood no chance against such an attack.
The first blow of the ram sufficed to shake them, and an
opening was rapidly made, so that in a few days, often
in a few hours, they became a heap of ruins ; the foot
soldiers could then enter by the breach which the pioneers
had effected.
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Nimroud, now in the
British Museum.
THE CONDITION OF ASSYRIA S NEIGHBOURS 15
It must, however, be remembered that the strength and
discipline which the Assyrian troops possessed in such a
high degree, were common to the military forces of all the
great states Elam, Damascus, Nairi, the Hittites, and
Chaldsea. It was owing to this, and also to the fact that
the armies of all these Powers were, as a rule, both in
strength and numbers, much on a par, that no single state
was able to inflict on any of the rest such a defeat as would
end in its destruction. What decisive results had the
terrible struggles produced, which stained almost
periodically the valleys of the Tigris and the Zab with
blood? After endless loss of life and property, they had
nearly always issued in the establishment of the belligerents
in their respective possessions, with possibly the cession of
some few small towns or fortresses to the stronger party,
most of which, however, were destined to come back to its
former possessor in the very next campaign. The fall of
the capital itself was not decisive, for it left the vanquished
foe chafing under his losses, while the victory cost his rival
so dear that he was unable to maintain the ascendencj^ for
more than a few years. Twice at least in three centuries a
king of Assyria had entered Babylon, and twice the
Babylonians had expelled the intruder of the hour, and had
forced him back with a blare of trumpets to the frontier.
Although the Ninevite dynasties had persisted in their
pretensions to a suzerainty which they had generally been
unable to enforce, the tradition of which, unsupported by
any definite decree, had been handed on from one genera
tion to another ; yet in practice their kings had not
succeeded in "taking the hands of Bel," and in reigning
10 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
personally in Babylon, nor in extorting from the native
sovereign an official acknowledgment of his vassalage.
Profiting doubtless by past experience, Assur-nazir-pal
resolutely avoided those direct conflicts in which so many
of his predecessors had wasted their lives. If he did not
actually renounce his hereditary pretensions, he was
content to let them lie dormant. He preferred to accom
modate himself to the terms of the treaty signed a few-
years previously by Bamman-nirari, even when Babylon
neglected to observe them ; he closed his eyes to the many
ill-disguised acts of hostility to which he was exposed, 1 and
devoted all his energies to dealing with less dangerous
enemies. Even if his frontier touched Karduniash to the
south, elsewhere he was separated from the few states
strong enough to menace his kingdom by a strip of varying
width, comprising several less important tribes and cities ;
to the east and north-east by the barbarians of obscure
race whose villages and strongholds were scattered along
the upper affluents of the Tigris or on the lower terraces of
the Iranian plateau : to the west and north-west by the
principalities and nomad tribes, mostly of Aramaean
extraction, who now for a century had peopled the
mountains of the Tigris and the steppes of Mesopotamia.
They were high-spirited, warlike, hardy populations, proud
of their independence and quick to take up arms in its
defence or for its recovery, but none of them possessed
more than a restricted domain, or had more than a handful
He did not make the presence of Cossrean troops among the allies of
the Sukhi a casusbetti, even though they were commanded by a brother and
by one of the principal officers of the King of Babylon.
METHODS OF ASSYRIAN CONQUEST
17
of soldiers at its disposal. At times, it is true, the nature
of their locality befriended them, and the advantages of
position helped to compensate for their paucity of numbers.
Sometimes they were entrenched behind one of those rapid
watercourses like the Eadanu, the Zab, or the Turn at,
THE ESCARPMENTS OF THE ZAB. 1
which are winter torrents rather than streams, and are
overhung by steep banks, precipitous as a wall above a
moat ; sometimes they took refuge upon some wooded
height and awaited attack amid its rocks and pine woods.
Assyria was superior to all of them, if not in the valour of
its troops, at least numerically, and, towering in the midst
of them, she could single out at will whichever tribe offered
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
VOL. VII. C
18 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the easiest prey, and falling on it suddenly, would crush it
by sheer force of weight. In such a case the surrounding
tribes, usually only too well pleased to witness in safety the
fall of a dangerous rival, would not attempt to interfere ;
but their turn was ere long sure to come, and the pity
which they had declined to show to their neighbours was in
like manner refused to them. The Assyrians ravaged their
country, held their chiefs to ransom, razed their strong
holds, or, when they did not demolish them, garrisoned
them with their own troops who held sway over the country.
The revenues gleaned from these conquests would swell
the treasury at Nineveh, the native soldiers would be
incorporated into the Assyrian army, and when the smaller
tribes had all in turn been subdued, their conqueror would,
at length, find himself confronted with one of the great
states from which he had been separated by tbese buffer
communities ; then it was that the men and money he had
appropriated in his conquests would embolden him to
provoke or accept battle with some tolerable certainty of
victory.
Immediately on his accession, Assur-nazir-pal turned his
attention to the parts of his frontier where the population
was most scattered, and therefore less able to offer any
resistance to his projects. 1 He marched towards the
The principal document for the history of Assur-nazir-pal is the
" Monolith of Nimrud," discovered by Layard in the ruins of the temple of
Ninip ; it bears the same inscription on both its sides. It is a compilation
of various documents, comprising, first, a consecutive account of the cam
paigns of the king s first six years, terminating in a summary of the results
obtained during that period ; secondly, the account of the campaign of his
sixth year, followed by three campaigns not dated, the last of which was in
ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL S FIRST CAMPAIGN IN NAIRI 19
north- western point of his territory, suddenly invaded
Nummi, 1 and in an incredibly short time took Gubbe,
its capital, and some half-dozen lesser places, among them
Surra, Abuku, Arura, and Arubi. The inhabitants
assembled upon a mountain ridge which they believed
to be inaccessible, its peak being likened to " the point of
an iron dagger," and the steepness of its sides such that
"no winged bird of the heavens dare venture on them."
In the short space of three days Assur-nazir-pal succeeded
in climbing its precipices and forcing the entrenchments
which had been thrown up on its summit : two hundred
of its defenders perished sword in hand, the remainder
were taken prisoners. The Kirruri, 2 terrified by this
Syria ; and thirdly, the history of a last campaign, that of his eighteenth
year, and a second summary. A monolith found in the ruins of Kurkh, at
some distance from Diarbekir, contains some important additions to the
account of the campaigns of the fifth year. The other numerous inscriptions
of Assur-nazir-pal which have come down to us do not contain any informa
tion of importance which is not found in the text of the Annals. The
inscription of the broken Obelisk, from which I have often quoted, con
tains in the second column some mention of the works undertaken by this
king.
1 Nummi or Nimmi, mentioned already in the Annals of Tiglath-pileser
I., has been placed by Hommel in the mountain group which separates Lake
Van from Lake Urumiah, but by Tiele in the regions situated to the south
east of Nineveh ; the observations of Delattre show that we ought perhaps
to look for it to the north of the Arzania, certainly in the valley of that
river. It appears to me to answer to the cazas of Varto and Boulanik in
the sandjak of Mush. The name of the capital may be identified with the
present Gop, chief town of the caza of Boulanik ; in this case Abuku might be
represented by the village of Biyonkh.
The Kirruri must have had their habitat in the depression around Lake
Urumiah, on the western side of the lake, if we are to believe Schrader ;
Delattre has pointed out that it ought to be sought elsewhere, near the
sources of the Tigris, not far from the Murad-su. The connection in which
20 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
example, submitted unreservedly to the conqueror, yielded
him their horses, mules, oxen, sheep, wine, and brazen
vessels, and accepted the Assyrian prefects appointed to
collect the tribute. The neighbouring districts, Adaush,
Gilzan, and Khubushkia, followed their example; 1 they
sent the king considerable presents of gold, silver, lead,
and copper, and their alacrity in buying off their conqueror
saved them from the ruinous infliction of a garrison. The
Assyrian army defiling through the pass of Khulun next
fell upon the Kirkhi, dislodged the troops stationed in the
fortress of Nishtuu, and pillaged the cities of Khatu,
Khatara, Irbidi, Arzania, Tela, and Khalua ; 2 Bubu, the
it is here cited obliges us to place it in the immediate neighbourhood of
Nummi, and its relative position to Adaush and Gilzan makes it probable
that it is to be sought to the west and south-west of Lake Van, in the cazas
of Mush and Sassun in the sandjak of Mush.
1 Kirzau, also transcribed Gilzan and Guzan, has been relegated by the
older Assyriologists to Eastern Armenia, and the site further specified as
being between the ancient Araxes and Lake Urumiah, in the Persian
provinces of Khoi and Marand. The indications given in our text and the
passages brought together by Schrader, which place Gilzan in direct con
nection with Kirruri on one side and with Kurkhi on the other, oblige us
to locate the country in the upper basin of the Tigris, and I should place it
near Bitlis-tchai, where different forms of the word occur many times on the
map, such as Ghalzan in Ghalzan-dagh ; Kharzan, the name of a caza of the
sandjak of Sert ; Khizan, the name of a caza of the sandjak of Bitlis.
Girzan-Kilzan would thus be the Roman province of Arzanene, Ardzn in
Armenian, in which the initial g or k of the ancient name has been replaced
in the process of time by a soft aspirate. Khubushkia or Khutushkia has
been placed by Lenormant to the east of the Upper Zab, and south of
Arapkha, and this identification has been approved by Schrader and also by
Delitzsch ; according to the passages that Schrader himself has cited, it must,
however, have stretched northwards as far as Shatakh-su, meeting Gilzan
at one point of the sandjaks of Van and Hakkiari.
2 Assur-nasdr-pal, in going from Kirruri to Kirkhi in the basin of the
Tigris, could go either by the pass of Bitlis or that of Sassun ; that of Bitlis
ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL FOUNDS A COLONY
21
Chief of Nishtun, 1 was sent to Arbela, flayed alive, and his
skin nailed to the city wall. In a small town near one of
T/
. / / 1 ii < i
TEE CAMPAIGNS
OF ASSUR.-NAZffi.-PAL
A - ^
\ --... *&
the sources of the Tigris, Assur-nazir-pal founded a colony
on which he imposed his name ; he left there a statue of
is excluded by the fact that it lies in Kirruri, and Kirrui i is not mentioned
in what follows. But if the route chosen was by the pass of Sassun, Khulun
necessarily must have occupied a position at the entrance of the denies, per
haps that of the present town of Khorukh. The name Khatu recalls that
of the Khoith tribe which the Armenian historians mention as in this
locality. Khaturu is perhaps Hatera in the caza of Lidje, in the sandjak of
DiarbeMr, and Arzania the ancient Arzan, Arzn, the ruins of which may be
seen near Sheikh- Yunus. Tila-Tela is not the same town as the Tela in Meso
potamia, which we shall have occasion to speak of later, but is probably to
be identified with Til or Tilleh, at the confluence of the Tigris and the
Bohtan-tcha. Finally, it is possible that the name Khalua may be pre
served in that of Halewi, which Layard gives as belonging to a village
situated almost halfway between Rundvan and Til.
Nishtun was probably the most important spot in this region : from its
position on the list, between Khulun and Khataru on one side and Arzania
on the other, it is evident we must look for it somewhere in Sassun or in the
direction of Mayafarrikin.
22 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
himself, with an inscription celebrating his exploits carved
on its base, and having done this, he returned to Nineveh
laden with booty. A few weeks had sufficed for him to
complete, on this side, the work bequeathed to him by his
father, and to open up the neighbourhood of the north-
THE SITE OF SHADIKAXXI AT AKBAN, OX THE KHABUK. 1
east provinces; he was not long in setting out afresh,
this time to the north-west, in the direction of the Taurus. 2
He rapidly skirted the left bank of. the Tigris, burned some
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch taken by Layard.
2 The text of the " Annals " declares that these events took place "in
this same limmu," in what the king calls higher up in the column " the
beginning of my royalty, the first year of my reign." We must therefore
suppose that he ascended the throne almost at the beginning of the year,
since he was able to make two campaigns under the same eponym.
COLLECTING THE TRIBUTE 23
score of scattered hamlets at the foot of Nipur and Pazatu, 1
crossed to the right bank, above Ainidi, and, as he
approached the Euphrates, received the voluntary homage
of Kummukh and the Mushku. 2 But while he was com
placently engaged in recording the amount of vessels of
bronze, oxen, sheep, and jars of wine which represented
their tribute, a messenger of bad tidings appeared before
him. Assyria was bounded on the east by a line of small
states, comprising the Katna 3 and the Bit-Khalupi, 4 whose
1 Nipur or Nibur is the Nibaros of Strabo. If we consider the general
direction of the campaign, we are inclined to place Nipur close to the bank
of the Tigris, east of the regions traversed in the preceding campaign, and
to identify it, as also Pazatu, with the group of high hills called at the
present day the Ashit-dagh, between the Kharzan-su and the Batman-
tchai.
2 The Mushku (Moschiano or Meshek) mentioned here do not represent
the main body of the tribe, established in Cappaclocia ; they are the
descendants of such of the Mushku as had crossed the Euphrates and con
tested the possession of the regions of Kashiari with the Assyrians.
3 The name has been read sometimes Katna, sometimes Shuna. The
country included the two towns of Karnani and Dur-Katlimi, and on the
south adjoined Bit-Khalupi ; this identifies it with the districts of Magada
and Sheddadiyeh, and, judging by the information with which Assur-nazir-
pal himself furnishes us, it is not impossible that Dur-Katline may have
been on the site of the present Magarda, and Kamani on that of Shedda
diyeh. Ancient ruins have been pointed out on both these spots.
4 Suru, the capital of Bit-Khalupi, was built upon the Khabur itself
where it is navigable, for Assur-nazir-pal relates further on that he had his
royal barge built there at the time of the cruise which he undertook on
the Euphrates in the VI th year of his reign. The itineraries of modern
travellers mention a place called es-Sauar or es-Saur, eight hours march
from the mouth of the Khabur on the right bank of the river, situated at
the foot of a hill some 220 feet high ; the ruins of a fortified enclosure
and of an ancient town are still visible. Following Tomkins, I should there
place Suru, the chief town of Khalupi ; Bit-Khalupi would be the territory
in the neighbourhood of es-Saur.
21 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
towns, placed alternately like sentries on each side the
Khabur, protected her from the incursions of the Bedawin.
They were virtually Chaldaean cities, having been, like
most of those which flourished in the Mesopotamian plains,
thoroughly impreg
nated with Baby
lonian civilisation.
Shadikanni, the most
important of them,
commanded the right
bank of the Khabur,
and also the ford
where the road from
Nineveh crossed the
river on the route to
Harian and Carehe-
mish. The palaces of
its rulers were deco
rated with winged
bulls, lions, stelae,
and has - reliefs
carved in marble brought from the hills of Singar. The
people seem to have been of a capricious temperament,
and, nothwithstanding the supervision to which they were
subjected, few reigns elapsed in which it was not necessary
to put down a rebellion among them. Bit-Khalupi and
its capital Suru had thrown off the Assyrian yoke after
the death of Tukulti-ninip ; the populace, stirred up no
doubt by Aramaean emissaries, had assassinated the
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.
tfr
^yjcrrv N
ONE OF THE WINGED BULLS FOUND AT ARE AN. 1
NO. 1.
NO. 2.
NO. 1. ENAMELED BRICK (NIMROD).
NO. 2. FRAGMENT OF MURAL PAINTING (NIMROD).
ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL S CAMPAIGN ON THE KHABUR 25
Harnathite who governed them, and had sent for a certain
Akhiababa, a man of base extraction from Bit-Adini,
whom they had proclaimed king. This defection, if not
promptly dealt with, was likely to entail serious conse
quences, since it left an important point on the frontier
exposed; and there now re
mained nothing to prevent
the people of Adini or their
allies from spreading over the
country between the Khabur
and the Jigris, and even push
ing forward their marauding
bands as far as the very walls
of Singar and Assur. With
out losing a moment, Assur-
nazir-pal inarched down the
course of the Khabur, hastily
collecting the tribute of the
cities through which he
passed. The defenders of
Suru were disconcerted by
his sudden appearance before their town, and their rulers
came out and prostrated themselves at the king s feet :
"Dost thou desire it? it is life for us ; dost thou desire
it? it is death; dost thou desire it? what thy heart
chooseth, that do to us 1 " But the appeal to his clemency
was in vain ; the alarm had been so great and the danger
so pressing, that Assur-nazir-pal was pitiless. The town
was handed over to the soldiery, all the treasure it
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard s sketch.
STELE FEOM Alt BAN.
26 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
contained was confiscated, and the women and children of
the best families were made slaves ; some of the ringleaders
paid the penalty of their revolt on the spot ; the rest,
with Akhiababa, were carried away and flayed alive, some
at Nineveh, some elsewhere. An Assyrian garrison was
installed in the citadel, and an ordinary governor, Azilu
by name, replaced the dynasty of native princes. The
report of this terrible retribution induced the Laqi 1 to
tender their submission, and their example was followed
by Khaian, king of Khindanu on the Euphrates. He
bought off the Assyrians with gold, silver, lead, precious
stones, deep-hued purple, and dromedaries ; he erected
a statue of Assur-nazir-pal in the centre of his palace as
a sign of his vassalage, and built into the wall near the
gates of his town an inscription dedicated to the gods
of the conqueror. Six, or at the most eight, months had
sufficed to achieve these rapid successes over various foes,
in twenty different directions the expeditions in Nummi
and Kirruri, the occupation of Kurnrnukh, the flying
marches across the mountains and plains of Mesopotamia
during all of which the new sovereign had given ample
proof of his genius. He had, in fine, shown himself to be
a thorough soldier, a conqueror of the type of Tiglath-
pileser, and Assyria by these victories had recovered her
rightful rank among the nations of Western Asia.
The second year of his reign was no less fully occupied,
nor did it prove less successful than the first. At its very
The Laqi were situated on both banks of the Euphrates, principally on
the right bank, between the Khabur and the Balikh, interspersed among
the Sukhi, of whom they were perhaps merely a dissentient fraction.
SECOND CAMPAIGN IN NAIRI 27
beginning, and even before the return of the favourable
season, the Sukhi on the Euphrates made a public act
of submission, and their chief, Ilubani, brought to Nineveh
on their behalf a large sum of gold and silver. He had
scarcely left the capital when the news of an untoward
event effaced the good impression he had made. The
descendants of the colonists, planted in bygone times by
Shalmaneser I. on the western slope of the Masios, in the
district of Klialzidipkha, had thrown off their allegiance,
and their leader, Khulai, was besieging the royal fortress
of Damdamusa. 1 Assur-nazir-pal marched direct to the
sources of the Tigris, and the mere fact of his presence
sufficed to prevent any rising in that quarter. He took
advantage of the occasion to set up a stele beside those
of his father Tukulti-ninip and his ancestor Tiglath-pileser,
and then having halted to receive the tribute of Izalla, 2
1 The position of Klialzidipkha or Khalzilukha, as well as that of Kina-
bu, its stronghold, is shown approximately by what follows. Assur-nazir-
pal, marching from the sources of the Supnat towards Tela, could pass
either to the east or west of the Karajah-dagh ; as the end of the campaign
finds him at Tushkhan, to the south of the Tigris, and he returns to JS T airi
and Kirkhi by the eastern side of the Karajah-dagh, we are led to conclude
that the outgoing march to Tela was by the western side, through the
country situated between the Karajah-dagh and the Euphrates. On
referring to a modern map, two rather important places will be found in this
locality : the first, Arghana, commanding the road from Diarbekir to Khar-
put ; the other, Severek, on the route from Diarbekir to Orfah. Arghana
appears to me to correspond to the royal city of Damdamusa, which would
thus have protected the approach to the plain on the north-west. Severek
corresponds fairly well to the position which, according to the Assyrian text,
Kinabu must have occupied ; hence the country of Khalzidipkha (Khalzi-
lukha) must be the district of Severek.
2 Izalla, written also Izala, Azala, paid its tribute in sheep and oxen,
and also produced a wine for which it continued to be celebrated down
ZS ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
he turned southwards, and took up a position on the slopes
of the Kashiari. At the first news of his approach, Khulai
had raised the blockade of Damdamusa and had entrenched
himself in Kinabu; the Assyrians, however, carried the
place by storm, and six hundred soldiers of the garrison
were killed in the attack. The survivors, to the number
of three thousand, together with many women and children,
were thrown into the flames. The people of Mariru
hastened to the rescue ; l the Assyrians took three hundred
of them prisoners and burnt them alive ; fifty others were
ripped up, but the victors did not stop to reduce their
town. The district of Nirbu was next subjected to
systematic ravaging, and half of its inhabitants fled into
the Mesopotamian desert, while the remainder sought
refuge in Tela at the foot of the Ukhira. 2 The latter place
was a strong one, being surrounded by three enclosing
walls, and it offered an obstinate resistance. Notwith
standing this, it at length fell, after having lost three
to the time of Nebuchadrezzar II. Lenormant and Finzi place this country
near to Nisibis, where the Byzantine and Syrian writers mention a district
and a mountain of the same name, and this conjecture is borne out by the
passages of the Annals of Assur-nazir-pal which place ifc in the vicinity of
Bit-Adini and Bit-Bakhiani. It has also been adopted by most of the
historians who have recently studied the question.
The site of Mariru is unknown ; according to the text of the Annals,
it ought to lie near Severek (Kinabu) to the south-east, since after having
mentioned it, Assur-nazir-pal speaks of the people of Nirbu whom he engaged
in the desert before marching against Tela.
2 Tila or Tela is the Tela Antoninopolis of the writers of the Roman
period and the present Veranshehr. The district of Nirbu, of which it was
the capital, lay on the southern slope of the Karajah-dagh at the foot of
Mount Urkhira, the central group of the range. The name Kashiari is
applied to the whole mountain group which separates the basins of the
Tigris and Euphrates to the south and south-west.
TORTURES INFLICTED ON THE GARRISON 29
thousand of its defenders : some of its garrison were
condemned to the stake, some had their hands, noses, or
ears cut off, others were deprived of sight, flayed alive,
or impaled amid the smoking ruins. This being deemed
insufficient punishment, the conqueror degraded the place
from its rank of chief town, transferring this, together with
its other privileges, to a neighbouring city, Tushkhan,
which had belonged to the Assyrians from the beginning
of their conquests. 1 The king enlarged the place, added
to it a strong enclosing wall, and installed within it the
survivors of the older colonists who had been dispersed
by the war, the majority of whom had taken refuge in
Shupria. 2 He constructed a palace there, built storehouses
for the reception of the grain of the province ; and, in
short, transformed the town into a stronghold of the first
1 From this passage we learn that Tushkhan, also called Tushkha, was
situated on the border of Nirbu, while from another passage in the cam
paign of the V th year we find that it was on the right bank of the Tigris.
Following H. Rawlinson, I place it at Kurkh, near the Tigris, to the east of
Diarbekir. The existence in that locality of an inscription of Assur-nazir-
pal appears to prove the correctness of this identification ; we are aware, in
fact, of the particular favour in which this prince held Tushkhan, for he
speaks with pride of the buildings with which he embellished it. Hommel,
however, identifies Kurkh with the town of Matiate, of which mention is
made further on.
2 Shupria or Shupri, a name which has been read Ruri, had been brought
into submission from the time of Shalmaneser I. "We gather from the
passages in which it is mentioned, that it was a hilly country, producing
wine, rich in flocks, and lying at a short distance from Tushkhan ; per
haps Mariru, mentioned on p. 28, was one of its towns. I think we may
safely place it on the north-western slopes of the Kashiari, in the modern
caza of Tchernik, which possesses several vineyards held in high estimation.
Knudtzon, to whom we are indebted for the reading of this name, places the
country rather further north, within the fork formed by the two upper
branches of the Tigris.
30 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
order, capable of serving as a base of operations for his
armies. The surrounding princes, in the meanwhile,
rallied round him, including Ammibaal of Bit-Zamani, and
the rulers of Shupria, Nairi, and Urumi ; : the chiefs of
Eastern Nirbu alone held aloof, emboldened by the rugged
nature of their mountains and the density of their forests.
Assur-nazir-pal attacked them on his return journey, dis
lodged them from the fortress of Ishpilibria where they
were entrenched, gained the pass of Buliani, and emerged
into the valley of Luqia. 2 At Ardupa a brief halt was
made to receive the ambassadors of one of the Hittite
sovereigns and others from the kings of Khanigalbat,
after which he returned to Nineveh, where he spent the
winter. As a matter of fact, these were but petty wars,
and their immediate results appear at the first glance quite
inadequate to account for the contemporary enthusiasm
1 The position of Bit-Zamani on the banks of the Euphrates was
determined by Delattre. Urumi was situated on the right bank of the same
river in the neighbourhood of Sumeisat, and the name has survived in that
of Urima, a town in the vicinity so called even as late as Roman times.
Nirdun, with Madara as its capital, occupied part of the eastern slopes of
the Kashiari towards Ortaveran.
2 Hommel identifies the Luqia with the northern affluent of the
Euphrates called on the ancient monuments Lykos, and he places the scene
of the war in Armenia. The context obliges us to look for this river to the
south of the Tigris, to the north-east and to the east of the Kashiari. The
king coming from Nirbu, the pass of Buliani, in which he finds the towns of
Kirkhi, must be the valley of Khaneki, in which the road winds from Mardin
to Diarbekir, and the Luqia is probably the most important stream in this
region, the Sheikhan-Su, which waters Savur, chief town of the caza of
Avineh. Ardupa must have been situated near, or on the actual site of, the
present Mardin, whose Assyrian name is unknown to us ; it was at all
events a military station on the road to Nineveh, along which the king
returned victorious with the spoil.
THIRD CAMPAIGN IN NAIRI 31
they excited. The sincerity of it can be better understood
when we consider the miserable state of the country
twenty years previously. Assyria then comprised two
territories, one in the plains of the middle, the other in
the districts of the upper, Tigris, both of considerable
extent, but almost without regular intercommunication.
Caravans or isolated messengers might pass with tolerable
safety from Assur and Nineveh to Singar, or even to
Nisibis ; but beyond these places they had to brave the
narrow defiles and steep paths in the forests of the Masios,
through which it was rash to venture without keeping
eye and ear ever on the alert. The mountaineers and
their chiefs recognized the nominal suzerainty of Assyria,
but refused to act upon this recognition unless constrained
by a strong hand ; if this control were relaxed they levied
contributions on, or massacred, all who came within their
reach, and the king himself never travelled from his own
city of Nineveh to his own town of Amidi unless accom
panied by an army. In less than the short space of three
years, Assur-nazir-pal had remedied this evil. By the
slaughter of some two hundred men in one place, three
hundred in another, two or three thousand in a third,
by dint of impaling and flaying refractory sheikhs, burn
ing villages and dismantling strongholds, he forced the
marauders of Nairi and Kirkhi to respect his frontiers
and desist from pillaging his country. The two divisions
of his kingdom, strengthened by the military colonies in
Nirbu, were united, and became welded together into a
compact whole from the banks of the Lower Zab to the
sources of the Khabur and the Supnat.
32 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
During the following season the course of events
diverted the king s efforts into quite an opposite direction
(B.C. 882). Under the name of Zamua there existed a
number of small states scattered along the western slope
of the Iranian Plateau north of the Coss^ans. 1 Many
of them as, for instance, the Lullume had been civilized
by the Chaldasans almost from time immemorial ; the most
southern among them were perpetually oscillating between
the respective areas of influence of Babylon and Nineveh,
according as one or other of these cities was in the
ascendant, but at this particular moment they acknow
ledged Assyrian sway. Were they excited to rebellion
against the latter power by the emissaries of its rival, or
did they merely think that Assur-nazir-pal was too fully
absorbed in the affairs of Nairi to be able to carry his arms
effectively elsewhere ? At all events they coalesced under
Nurramman, the sheikh of Dagara, blocked the pass of
Babiti which led to their own territory, and there massed
their contingents behind the shelter of hastily erected
ramparts. 2 Assur-nazir-pal concentrated his army at
1 According to Hommel and Tiele, Zamua would be the country extend
ing from the sources of the Radanu to the southern shores of the lake of
Urumiah ; Schroder believes it to have occupied a smaller area, and places
it to the east and south-west of the lesser Zab. Delattre has shown that a
distinction must be made between Zamua on Lake Van and the well-known
Zamua upon the Zab. Zamua, as described by Assur-nazir-pal, answers
approximately to the present sandjak of Suleimaniyeh in the vilayet of
Mossul.
2 Hommel believes that Assur-nazir-pal crossed the Zab near Altin-
keupru, and he is certainly correct : but it appears to me from a passage in
the Annals, that instead of taking the road which leads to Bagdad by Kor-
kuk and Tuz-Khurmati, he marched along that which leads eastwards in the
direction of Suleimaniyeh. The pass of P>abiti must have lain between
ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL IN ZAMUA
33
Kakzi, 1 a little to the south of Arbela, and promptly
marched against them ; he swept all obstacles before him,
killed fourteen hundred and sixty men at the first
onslaught, put Dagara to fire and sword, and soon defeated
Nurrainman, but without effecting his capture. As the
campaign threatened to be prolonged, he formed an
THE CAMPAIGNS
orASSUR-NAZIR-PAL
IN ZAMUA.
entrenched camp in a favourable position, and stationed
in it some of his troops to guard the booty, while he
dispersed the rest to pillage the country on all sides.
One expedition led him to the mountain group of Nizir,
at the end of the chain known to the people of Lullume
Gawardis and Biban, facing the Kisse tchai, which forms the western branch
of the Radanu. Dagara would thus be represented by the district to the
east of Kerkuk at the foot of the Kara-dagh.
L Kakzi, sometimes read Kalzi, must have been situated at Shemamek or
Shamamik, near Hazeh, to the south-west of Erbil, the ancient Arbela, at
the spot where Jones noticed important Assyrian ruins excavated by
Layard.
VOL. VII. D
34 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
as the Kirdpa. 1 He there reduced to ruins seven towns
whose inhabitants had barricaded themselves in urgent
haste, collected the few herds of cattle he could find,
and driving them back to the camp, set out afresh towards
a part of Nizir as yet unsubdued by any conqueror. The
stronghold of Larbusa fell before the battering-ram, to be
followed shortly by the capture of Bara. Thereupon the
chiefs of Zamua, convinced of their helplessness, purchased
the king s departure by presents of horses, gold, silver,
and corn. 2 Nurramman alone remained impregnable in
his retreat at Nishpi, and an attempt to oust him resulted
solely in the surrender of the fortress of Birutu. 3 The
campaign, far from having been decisive, had to be con
tinued during the winter in another direction where revolts
had taken place, in Khuduu, in Kissirtu, and in the fief
of Arashtua, 4 all three of which extended over the upper
valleys of the lesser Zab, the Kadanu, the Turnat, and
1 Mount Kinipa is a part of Nizir, the Khalkhalan-dagh, if we may
judge from the direction of the Assyrian campaign.
2 None of these places can be identified with certainty. The gist of the
account leads us to gather that Bara was situated to the east of Dagara, and
formed its frontier ; we shall not be far wrong in looking for all these
districts in the fastnesses of the Kara-dagh, in the caza of Suleimaniyeh.
Mount Nishpi is perhaps the Segirme-dagh of the present day.
3 The Assyrian compiler appears to have made use of two slightly differ
ing accounts of this campaign ; he has twice repeated the same facts without
noticing his mistake.
4 The fief of Arashtua, situated beyond the Turnat, is probably the
district of Suleimaniyeh ; it is, indeed, at this place only that the upper
course of the Turnat is sufficiently near to that of the Radanu to make the
marches of Assur-nazir-pal in the direction indicated by the Assyrian scribe
possible. According to the account of the Annals, it seems to me that we
must seek for Khudun and Kissirtu to the south of the fief of Arashtua, in
the modern cazas of Gulanbar or Shehrizor.
ZAMUA REDUCED TO A PROVINCE 35
their affluents. The king once more set out from Kakzi,
crossed the Zab and the Eadanu, through the gorges of
Babiti, and halting on the ridges of Mount Simaki,
peremptorily demanded tribute from Dagara. 1 This was,
however, merely a ruse to deceive the enemy, for taking
one evening the lightest of his chariots and the best of
his horsemen, he galloped all night without drawing rein,
crossed the Turnat at dawn, and pushing straight forward,
arrived in the afternoon of the same day before the walls
of Ammali, in the very heart of the fief of Arashtua. 2
The town vainly attempted a defence ; the whole popula
tion was reduced to slavery or dispersed in the forests,
the ramparts were demolished, and the houses reduced
to ashes. Khudun with twenty, and Kissirtu with ten
of its villages, Bara, Kirtiara, Dur-Lullume, and Bunisa,
offered no further resistance, and the invading host halted
within sight of the defiles of Khashmar. 3 One kinglet,
however, Amika of Zamru, showed no intention of
capitulating. Entrenched behind a screen of forests and
frowning mountain ridges, he fearlessly awaited the
The Annals of Assur-nazir-pal go on to mention that Mount Simaki
extended as far as the Turnat, and that it was close to Mount Azira. This
passage, when compared with that in which the opening of the campaign is
described, obliges us to recognise in Mounts Simaki and Azira two parts of
the Shehrizor chain, parallel to the Seguirme-dagh. The fortress of Mizu,
mentioned in the first of these two texts, may perhaps be the present Guran-
kaleh.,
2 Hommel thinks that Ammali is perhaps the present Suleimaniyeh ; it
is, at all events, on this side that we must look for its site.
} I do not know whether we may trace the name of the ancient Mount
Khashmar-Khashmir in the present Azmir-dagh ; it is at its feet, probably
in the valley of Suleimanabad, that we ought to place the passes of Khash
mar.
36 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
attack. The only access to the remote villages over
which he ruled, was by a few rough roads hemmed in
between steep cliffs and beds of torrents ; difficult and
dangerous at ordinary times, they were blocked in
war by temporary barricades, and dominated at every
turn by some fortress perched at a dizzy height above
them. After his return to the camp, where his soldiers
were allowed a short respite, Assur-nazir-pal set out against
Zamru, though he . was caref ul not to approach it directly
and attack it at its most formidable points. Between two
peaks of the Lara and Bidirgi ranges he discovered a path
which had been deemed impracticable for horses, or even
for heavily armed men. By this route, the king, un
suspected by the enemy, made his way through the
mountains, and descended so unexpectedly upon Zamru,
that Amika had barely time to make his escape, abandoning
everything in his alarm palace, treasures, harem, and
even his chariot. 1 A body of Assyrians pursued him hotly
beyond the fords of the Lallu, chasing him as far as Mount
Itiui ; then, retracing their steps to headquarters, they
at once set out on a fresh track, crossed the Idir, and
proceeded to lay waste the plains of Ilaniu and Suani. 2
1 This raid, which started from the same point as the preceding one, ran
eastwards in an opposite direction and ended at Mount Itini. Leaving the
fief of Arashtua in the neighbourhood of Suleimaniyeh, Assur-nazir-pal
crossed the chain of the Azmir-dagh near Pir-Omar and Gudrun, where we
must place Mounts Lara and Bidirgi, and emerged upon Zamru ; the only
places which appear to correspond to Zamru in that region are Kandishin
and Suleimanabad. Hence the Lallu is the river which runs by Kandishin
and Suleimanabad, and Itini the mountain which separates this river from
the Tchami-Kizildjik.
a I think we may recognise the ancient name of Ilaniu in that of Alan,
FRUITS OF THE CONQUEST
37
Despairing of taking Amika prisoner, Assnr-nazir-pal
allowed Mm to lie hidden among the brushwood of Mount
Sabua, while he himself called a halt at Parsindu, 1 and
set to work to organise the fruits of his conquest. He
THE ZAB BELOW THE PASSES OF ALAN, THE ANCIENT ILANIU. 2
placed garrisons in the principal towns at Parsindu,
Zamru, and at Arakdi in Lullume, which one of his
now borne by a district on the Tui kish and Persian frontier, situated
between Kunekdji-dagh and the town of Serdesht. The expedition, coming
from the fief of Arashtua, must have marched northwards : the Idir in this
case must be the Tchami-Kizildjik, and Mount Sabua the chain of mountains
above Serdesht.
Parsindu, mentioned between Mount Ilaniu and the town of Zamru,
ought to lie somewhere in the valley of Tchami-Kizildjik, near Murana.
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.
38 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
predecessors bad re-named Tukulti-Ashshur-azbat, 1 -"I
have taken the help of Assur." He next imposed on the
surrounding country an annual tribute of gold, silver,
lead, copper, dyed stuffs, oxen, sheep, and wine. Envoys
from neighbouring kings poured in from Klmdun ;
Khubushkia, and Gilza-u, and the whole of Northern
Zamua bowed " before the splendour of his arms; it
now needed only a few raids resolutely directed against
Mounts Azira and Sirnaki, as far as the Turnat, to
achieve the final pacification of the South. While in
this neighbourhood, his attention was directed to the
old town of AtllLv built by Sibir, 3 an ancient king of
Karduniash, but which had been half ruined by the bar
barians. He re-named it Dur-Assur, "the fortress of
Assur," and built himself within it a palace and storehouses,
in which he accumulated large quantities of corn, making
the town the strongest bulwark of his power on the
Cossean border. The two campaigns of B.C. 882 and 881
1 The approximate site of Arakdi is indicated in the itinerary of Assur-
nazir-pal itself ; the king comes from Zamru in the neighbourhood of Sulei-
manabad, crosses Mount Lara, which is the northern part of the Azmir-dagh,
and arrives at Arakdi, possibly somewhere in Surtash. In. the course of the
preceding campaign, after having laid waste Bara, he set out from this same
town (Arakdi) to subdue Nishpi, all of which bears out the position I have
indicated. The present town of Bazian would answer fairly well for the site
of a place destined to protect the Assyrian frontier on this side.
2 Given its position on the Chaldaean frontier, Atlila is probably to be
identified with the Kerkuk of the present day.
3 Hommel is inclined to believe that Sibir was the immediate predecessor
of Nabubaliddin, who reigned at Babylon at the same time as Assur-nazir-
pal at Nineveh ; consequently he would be a contemporary of Ramman-
nirari III. and of Tukulti-ninip II. Peiser and Rost have identified him
with Simmash-shikhu.
ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL S CAMPAIGN IN NAIRI 39
had cost Assur-nazir-pal great efforts, and their results
had been inadequate to the energy expended. His two
principal adversaries, Nurramman and Amika, had eluded
him, and still preserved their independence at the eastern
extremities of their former states. Most of the mountain
tribes had acknowledged the king s supremacy merely
provisionally, in order to rid themselves of his presence ;
they had been vanquished scores of times, but were in
no sense subjugated, and the moment pressure was with
drawn, they again took up arms. The districts of Zamua
alone, which bordered on the Assyrian plain, and had
been occupied by a military force, formed a province,
a kind of buffer state between the mountain tribes
and the plains of the Zab, protecting the latter from
incursions.
Assur-nazir-pal, feeling himself tolerably safe on that
side, made no further demands, and withdrew his battalions
to the westward part of his northern frontier. He hoped,
no doubt, to complete the subjugation of the tribes who
still contested the possession of various parts of the
Kashiari, and then to push forward his main guard as
far as the Euphrates and the Arzania, so as to form around
the plain of Amidi a zone of vassals or tutelary subjects
like those of Zamua. With this end in view, he crossed
the Tigris near its source at the traditional fords, and
made his way unmolested in the bend of the Euphrates
from the palace of Tilluli, where the accustomed tribute
of Kummukh was brought to him, to the fortress of
Ishtarati, and from thence to Kibaki. The town of
Matiate, having closed its gates against him, was at once
40 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
sacked, and this example so stimulated the loyalty of the
Kurkhi chiefs, that they hastened to welcome him at the
neighbouring military station of Zazabukha. The king s
progress continued thence as before, broken by frequent
halts at the most favourable points for levying contribu
tions on the inhabitants. 1 Assur-nazir-pal encountered no
serious difficulty except on the northern slopes of the
Kashiari, but there again fortune smiled on him ; all the
contested positions were soon ceded to him, including even
Madara, whose fourfold circuit of walls did not avail to
save it from the conqueror. 2 After a brief respite at
Tushkhan, he set out again one evening with his lightest
chariots and the pick of his horsemen, crossed the Tigris
on rafts, rode all night, and arrived unexpectedly the next
morning before Pitura, the chief town of the Dirraeans. 3
It was surrounded by a strong double enceinte, through
which he broke after forty-eight hours of continuous
1 It is difficult to place any of these localities on the map : they ought
all to be found between the ford of the Tigris, at Diarbekir and the
Euphrates, probably at the foot of the Mihrab-dagh and the Kirwantchemen-
dagh.
2 Madara belonged to a certain Lapturi, son of Tubusi, mentioned in the
campaign of the king s second year. In comparing the facts given in the
two passages, we see it was situated en the eastern slope of the Kashiari,
not far from Tushkhan on one side, and Ardupa that is probably Mardin
on the other. The position of Ortaveran, or of one of the " tells " in its
neighbourhood, answers fairly well to these conditions.
3 According to the details given in the Annals, we must place the town
of Bitura (or Pitura) at about 19 miles from Kurkh, on the other side of
the Tigris, in a north-easterly direction, and consequently the country of
Dirra would be between the Hazu-tchai and the Batman-tchai. The Matni,
with its passes leading in to Nairi, must in this case be the mountain group
to the north of Mayafarrikin, known as the Dordoseh-dagh or the Darkosh-
dagh.
A RICH HARVEST OF SPOIL 41
assault : 800 of its men perished in the breach, and 700
others were impaled before the gates. Arbaki, at the
extreme limits of Kirkhi, was the next to succumb, after
which the Assyrians, having pillaged Dirra, carried the
passes of Matni after a bloody combat, spread themselves
over Nairi, burning 250 of its towns and villages, and
returned with immense booty to Tushkhan. They had
been there merely a few days when the news arrived that
the people of Bit-Zamani, always impatient of the yoke,
had murdered their prince Arnmibaal, and had proclaimed
a certain Burramman in his place. Assur-nazir-pal marched
upon Sinabu x and repressed the insurrection, reaping a rich
harvest of spoil chariots fully equipped, 600 draught-
horses, 130 pounds of silver and as much of gold, 6600
pounds of lead and the same of copper, 19,800 pounds of
iron, stuffs, furniture in gold and ivory, 2000 bulls, 500
sheep, the entire harem of Ammibaal, besides a number
of maidens of noble family together with their dresses.
Burramman was by the king s order flayed alive, and
Arteanu his brother chosen as his successor. Sinabu and
the surrounding towns formed part of that network of
colonies which in times past Shalmaneser I. had organised
as a protection from the incursions of the inhabitants of
Nairi ; Assur-nazir-pal now used it as a rallying- place for
the remaining Assyrian families, to whom he distributed
lands and confided the guardianship of the neighbouring
1 Hommel thinks that Sinabu is very probably the same as the Kinabu
mentioned above ; but it appears from Assur-nazir-pal s own account that
this Kinabu was in the province of Khalzidipkha (Khalzilukha) on the
Kashiari, whereas Sinabu was in Bit-Zamani.
42 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
strongholds. The results of this measure were not long
in making themselves felt : Shupria, Ulliba, and Nirbu,
besides other districts, paid their dues to the king, and
Shura in Khamanu, 1 which had for some time held out
against the general movement, was at length constrained
to submit (880 B.C.). However high we may rate the
value of this campaign, it was eclipsed by the following
one. The Aramaeans on the Khabur and the middle
Euphrates had not witnessed without anxiety the revival
of Ninevite activity, and had begged for assistance against
it from its rival. Two of their principal tribes, the Sukhi
and the Laqi, had addressed themselves to the sovereign
then reigning at Babylon. He was a restless, ambitious
prince, named Nabu-baliddin, who asked nothing better
than to excite a hostile feeling against his neighbour,
provided he ran no risk by his interference of being
drawn into open warfare. He accordingly despatched to
the Prince of Sukhi the best of his Cossaean troops, com
manded by his brother Zabdanu and one of the great
officers of the crown, Bel-baliddin. In the spring of 879
B.C., Assur-nazir-pal determined once for all to put an end
to these intrigues. He began by inspecting the citadels
flanking the line of the Kharmish 2 and the Khabur,
1 Shur is mentioned on the return to Nairi, possibly on the road leading
from Amidi and Tushkhan to Nineveh. Hommel believes that the country
of Khamanu was the Amanos in Cilicia, and he admits, but unwillingly, that
Assur-nazir-pal made a detour beyond the Euphrates. I should look for
Shura, and consequently for Khamanu, in the Tur-Abdin, and should
identify them with Saur, in spite of the difference of the two initial articula
tions.
2 The Kharmish has been identified with the Hirmas, the river flowing
by Nisibis, and now called the Nahr-Jaghjagha.
CAMPAIGN ON THE EUPHRATES 43
Tahiti, 1 Magarisi, 2 Shadikanni, Shuru in Blt-Khalupi, and
Sirki. 3 Between the embouchures of the Khahur and the
Balikh, the Euphrates winds across a vast table-land,
ridged with marly hills ; the left bank is dry and sterile,
shaded at rare intervals by sparse woods of poplars or
groups of palms. The right bank, on the contrary, is
seamed with fertile valleys, sufficiently well watered to
permit the growth of cereals and the raising of cattle.
The river-bed is almost everywhere wide, but strewn with
dangerous rocks and sandbanks which render navigation
perilous. On nearing the ruins of Halebiyeh, the river
narrows as it enters the Arabian hills, and cuts for itself
a regular defile of three or four hundred paces in length,
which is approached by the pilots with caution. 4 Assur-
nazir-pal, on leaving Sirki, made his way along the left
bank, levying toll on Supri, Naqarabani, and several other
villages in his course. Here and there he called a halt
facing some town on the opposite bank, but the boats
which could have put him across had been removed, and
the fords were too well guarded to permit of his hazarding
an attack. One town, however, Khindanu, made him a
1 Tahiti is the Thebeta (Thebet) of Roman itineraries and Syrian writers,
situated 33 miles from Nisibis and 52 from Singara, on the Nahr-Hesawy or
one of the neighbouring wadys.
2 Magarisi ought to be found on the present Nahr-Jaghjagha, near its
confluence with the Nahr-Jerrahi and its tributaries ; unfortunately, this
part of Mesopotamia is still almost entirely unexplored, and no satisfactory
map of it exists as yet.
3 Sirki is Circesium at the mouth of the Khabur.
It is at this defile of El-Hammeh, and not at that of Birejik at the
end of the Taurus, that we must place the Khinqi sha Purati -the narrows
of the Euphrates so often mentioned in the account of this campaign.
44: ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
voluntary offering which he affected to regard as a tribute,
but Kharidi and Anat appeared not even to suspect his
presence in their vicinity, and he continued on his way
THE CAMPAIGNS
opASSUR- NAZIR-PAL
IN MESOPOTAMIA.
without having obtained from them anything which could
be construed into a mark of vassalage. 1 At length, on
1 The detailed narrative of the Annals informs us that Assur-nazir-pal
encamped on a mountain between Khindanu and Bit-Shabaia, and this
information enables us to determine on the map with tolerable certainty the
localities mentioned in this campaign. The mountain in question can be
none other than El-Hammeh, the only one met with on this bank of the
Euphrates between the confluents of the Euphrates and the Khabur. Khin
danu is therefore identical with the ruins of Tabus, the Dabausa of Ptolemy ;
hence Supri and Naqabarani are situated between this point and Sirki, the
former in the direction of Tayebeh, the latter towards El-Hoseiniyeh. On
the other hand, the ruins of Kabr Abu-Atish would correspond very well to
Bit-Shabaia : is the name of Abu-Sbe borne by the Arabs of that neighbour
hood a relic of that of Shabaia? Kharidi ought in that case to be looked
for on the opposite bank, near Abu-Suban and Aksubi, where Chesney points
CAMPAIGN ON THE EUPHRATES 45
reaching Shuru, Shadadu, the Prince of Sukhi, trusting
in his Cossa3ans, offered him battle ; but he was defeated
by Assur-nazir-pal, who captured the King of Babylon s
brother, forced his way into the town after an assault
lasting two days, and returned to Assyria laden with
spoil. This might almost be considered as a repulse ; for
no sooner had the king quitted the country than the
AramaBans in their turn crossed the Euphrates and ravaged
the plains of the Khabur. 1 Assur-nazir-pal resolved not
to return until he was in a position to carry his arms into
the heart of the enemy s country. He built a flotilla at
Shuru. in Bit-Khalupi on which he embarked his troops.
Wherever the navigation of the Euphrates proved to be
difficult, the boats were drawn up out of the water and
dragged along the banks over rollers until they could
again be safely launched; thus, partly afloat and partly
on land, they passed through the gorge of Halebiyeh,
landed at Kharidi, and inflicted a salutary punishment on
the cities which had defied the king s wrath on his last
expedition. Khindanu, Kharidi, and Kipina were reduced
to ruins, and the Sukhi and the Laqi defeated, the
Assyrians pursuing them for two days in the Bisuru
mountains as far as the frontiers of Bit-Adini. 2 A complete
out ancient remains. A day s march beyond Kabr Abu-Atish brings us to
El-Khass, so that the town of Anat would be in the Isle of Moglah. Shuru
must be somewhere near one of the two Tell-Menakhirs on this side the
Balikh.
1 The Annals do not give us either the limmu or the date of the year for
this new expedition. The facts taken altogether prove that it was a con
tinuation of the preceding one, and it may therefore be placed in the year
B.C. 878.
2 The campaign of B.C. 878 had for its arena that of the Euphrates which
46 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
submission was brought about, and its permanency secured
by the erection of two strongholds, one of which, Kar-
assur-nazir-pal, commanded the left, and the other,
Nibarti-assur, the right bank of the Euphrates. 1
This last expedition had brought the king into contact
with the most important of the numerous Aramaean states
congregated in the western region of Mesopotamia. This
was Bit-Adini, which lay on both sides of the middle
course of the Euphrates. 2 It included, on the right bank,
to the north of Carchemish, between the hills on the Sajur
and Araban-Su, a mountainous but fertile district, dotted
over with towns and fortresses, the names of some of which
have been preserved Pakarrukhbuni, Sursunu, Paripa,
Dabigu, and Shitamrat. 3 Tul-Barsip, the capital, was
situated on the left bank, commanding the fords of the
modern Birejik, 4 and the whole of the territory between
lies between the Khabur and the Balikh ; this time, however, the principal
operations took place on the right bank. If Mount Bisuru is the Jebel-
Bishri, the town of Kipina, which is mentioned between it and Kharidi,
ought to be located between Maidan and Sabkha.
1 The account in the Annals is confused, and contains perhaps some
errors with regard to the facts. The site of the two towns is nowhere
indicated, but a study of the map shows that the Assyrians could not become
masters of the country without occupying the passes of the Euphrates ; I
am inclined to think that Kar-assur-nazir-pal is El-Halebiyeh, and Nibarti-
assur, Zalebiyeh, the Zenobia of Roman times.
1 Bit-Adini appears to have occupied, on the right bank of the Euphrates,
a part of the cazas of Ain-Tab, Rum-kaleh, and Birejik, that of Suruji, minus
the nakhiyeh of Harran, the larger part of the cazas of Membij and of
Rakkah, and part of the caza of Zor, the cazas being those represented on
the maps of Vital Cuinet.
3 None of these localities can be identified with certainty, except per
haps Dabigu, a name we may trace in that of the modern village of Dehbek.
4 Tul-Barsip has been identified with Birejik.
THE SUBMISSION OF BIT-ADINI 47
this latter and the Balikh acknowledged the rule of its
princes, whose authority also extended eastwards as far
as the basaltic plateau of Tul-Aba, in the Mesopotainian
desert. To the south-east, Bit-Adini bordered upon the
country of the Sukhi and the Laqi, 1 lying to the east of
Assyria ; other principalities, mainly of Aramaean origin,
formed its boundary to the north and north-west Shugab
in the bend of the Euphrates, from Birejik to Samosata, 2
Tul-Abni around Edessa, 3 the district of Harran, 4 Bit-
Zamani, Izalla in the Tektek-dagh and on the Upper
Khabur, and Bit-Bakhiani in the plain extending from the
Khabur to the Kharmish. 5 Bit-Zamani had belonged to
Assyria by right of conquest ever since the death of
Ammibaal ; Izalla and Bit-Bakhiani had fulfilled their
duties as vassals whenever Assur-nazir-pal had appeared
in their neighbourhood ; Bit-Adini alone had remained
independent, though its strength was more apparent than
1 In his previous campaign Assur-nazir-pal had taken two towns of Bit-
Adini, situated on the right bank of the Euphrates, at the eastern extremity
of Mount Bisuru, near the frontier of the Laqi.
2 The country of Shugab is mentioned between Birejik (Tul-Barsip) and
Bit-Zamani, in one of the campaigns of Shalmaneser III., which obliges us
to place it in the caza of Rum-kaleh ; the name has been read Sumu.
3 Tul-Abni, which was at first sought for near the sources of the Tigris,
has been placed in the Mesopotamian plain. The position which it occupies
among the other names obliges us to put it near Bit-Adini and Bit Zamani :
the only possible site that I can find for it is at Orfah, the Edessa of classical
times.
4 The country of Harran is nowhere mentioned as belonging either to
Bit-Adini or to Tul-Abni : we must hence conclude that at this period it
formed a little principality independent of those two states.
5 The situation of Bit-Bakhiani is shown by the position which it occupies
in the account of the campaign, and by the names associated with it in
another passage of the Annals.
48 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
real. The districts which it included had never been able
to form a basis for a powerful state. If by chance some
small kingdom arose within it, uniting under one authority
the tribes scattered over the burning plain or along the
river banks, the first conquering dynasty which sprang up
in the neighbourhood would be sure to effect its downfall,
and absorb it under its own leadership. As Mitani, saved
by its remote position from bondage to Egypt, had not
been able to escape from acknowledging the supremacy
of the Khati, so Bit-Adini was destined to fall almost
without a struggle under the yoke of the Assyrians. It
was protected from their advance by the volcanic groups
of the Uraa and Tul-Aba, which lay directly in the way
of the main road from the marshes of the Khabur to the
outskirts of Tul-Barsip. Assur-nazir-pal, who might have
worked round this line of natural defence to the north
through Nirbu, or to the south through his recently
acquired province of Laqi, preferred to approach it in
front ; he faced the desert, and, in spite of the drought,
he invested the strongest citadel of Tul-Aba in the month
of June, 877 B.C. The name of the place was Kaprabi,
and its inhabitants believed it impregnable, clinging as it
did to the mountain-side " like a cloud in the sky." x The
king, however, soon demolished its walls by sapping and
by the use of the ram, killed 800 of its garrison, burned
its houses, and carried off 2400 men with their families,
1 The name is commonly interpreted " Great Rock," and divided thus
Kap-rabi. It may also be considered, like Kapridargila or Kapranisha, as
being formed of Kapru and obi ; this latter element appears to exist in the
ancient name of Telaba, Thallaba, now Tul-Aba. Kapr-abi might be a
fortress of the province of Tul-Aba.
A DECISIVE CAMPAIGN 49
whom he installed in one of the suburbs of Calah. Akhuni,
who was then reigning in Bit-Adini, had not anticipated
that the invasion would reach his neighbourhood : he at
once sent hostages and purchased peace by a tribute ;
the Lord of Tul-Abni followed his example, and the
dominion of Assyria was carried at a blow to the very
frontier of the Khati. It was about two centuries before
this that Assurirba had crossed these frontiers with his
vanquished army, but the remembrance of his defeat had
still remained fresh in the memory of the people, as a
warning to the sovereign who should attempt the old
hazardous enterprise, and repeat the exploits of Sargon
of Agade or of Tiglath-pileser I. Assur-nazir-pal made
careful preparations for this campaign, so decisive a one
for his own prestige and for the future of the empire.
He took with him not only all the Assyrian troops at his
disposal, but requisitioned by the way the armies of his
most recently acquired vassals, incorporating them with
his own, not so much for the purpose of augmenting his
power of action, as to leave no force in his rear when
once he was engaged hand to hand with the Syrian legions.
He left Calah in the latter days of April, 876 B.C., 1 re
ceiving the customary taxes from Blt-Bakhiani, Izalla, and
Bit-Adini, which comprised horses, silver, gold, copper,
lead, precious stuffs, vessels of copper and furniture of
ivory; having reached Tul-Barsip, he accepted the gifts
offered by Tul-Abni, and crossing the Euphrates upon
1 On the 8th lyyar, but without any indication of limmu, or any number
of the year or of the campaign ; the date 876 B.C. is admitted by the
majority of historians.
VOL. VII. E
50 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
rafts of inflated skins, he marched his columns against
Carchemish.
The political organisation of Northern Syria had
remained entirely unaltered since the days when Tiglath-
pileser made his
first victorious
inroad into the
country. The
Cilician empire
which suc
ceeded to the
Assyrian if in
deed it ever ex
tended as far as
some suppose
did not last long
enough to dis
turb the balance
of power among the various
races occupying Syria : it had
subjugated them for a time,
but had not been able to break
them up and reconstitute them.
At the downfall of the Cilician
Empire the small states were
still intact, and occupied, as of
old, the territory comprising the ancient Naharaim of the
Egyptians, the plateau between the Orontes and the
Euphrates, the forests and marshy lowlands of the Amanos,
the southern slopes of Taurus, and the plains of Cilicia.
CAMPAIGNS
OFASSUR-NAZIR-PAL
IN SYRIA.
IVv
THE SYRIAN STATES 51
Of these states, the most famous, though not then the
most redoubtable, was that with which the name of the
Khati is indissolubly connected, and which had Carchemish
as its capital. This ancient city, seated on the banks
of the Euphrates, still maintained its supremacy there,
but though its wealth and religious ascendency were
undimiuished, its territory had been curtailed. The people
of Bifc-Adini had intruded themselves between this state
and Kummukh, Arazik hemmed it in on the south,
Khazazu and Khalman confined it on the west, so that
its sway was only freely exercised in the basin of the
Sajur. On the north-west frontier of the Khati lay
Gurgum, whose princes resided at Marqasi and ruled
over the central valley of the Pyramos together with
the entire basin of the Ak-su. Mikhri, 1 laudi, and
Sarnalla lay on the banks of the Samara, and in the forests
of the Amanos to the south of Gurgurn. Kui maintained
its uneventful existence amid the pastures of Cilicia, near
the marshes at the mouth of the Pyramos. To the south
of the Sajur, Bit-Agusi 2 barred the way to the Orontes ;
and from their lofty fastness of Arpad, its chiefs kept watch
over the caravan road, and closed or opened it at their
will. They held the key of Syria, and though their
territory was small in extent, their position was so strong
that for more than a century and a half the majority of
1 Mikhri or Ismikhri, i.e. "the country of larches," was the name of a
part of the Amanos, possibly near the Pyramos.
2 The real name of the country was lakhanu, but it was called Bit-Gusi
or Bit-Agusi, like Bit-Adini, Bit-Bakhiani, Bit-Omri, after the founder of
the reigning dynasty. We must place lakhanu to the south of Azaz, in the
neighbourhood of Arpad, with this town as its capital.
52 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the Assyrian generals preferred to avoid this stronghold
by making a detour to the west, rather than pass beneath
its walls. Scattered over the plateau on the borders of
Agusi, or hidden in the valleys of Amanos, were several
less important principalities, most of them owing allegiance
to Lubarna, at that time king of the Patina and the most
powerful sovereign of the district. The Patina had
apparently replaced the Alasia of Egyptian times, as
BAS-RELIEF FE03I A BUILDING AT SIJfJlHLI. 1
Bit-Adini had superseded Mitani ; the fertile meadow-
lands to the south of Samalla on the Afrln and the Lower
Orontes, together with the mountainous district between
the Orontes and the sea as far as the neighbourhood of
Eleutheros, also belonged to the Patina. On the southern
frontier of the Patina lay the important Phoenician cities,
Arvad, Arka, and Sina ; and on the south-east, the
fortresses belonging to Hamath and Damascus. The
characteristics of the country remained unchanged.
Fortified towns abounded on all sides, as well as large
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Perrot and Chipiez.
MANNERS AXD CUSTOMS
53
walled villages of conical huts, like those whose strange
outlines on the horizon are familiar to the traveller at
the present day. The manners and civilisation of Chalda?a
pervaded even more than formerly the petty courts, but
the artists clung persistently to Asianic tradition, and the
bas-reliefs which adorned the palaces and temples were
JIBRIX, A VILLAGE OF COXICAL HUTS, OX THE PLATEAU OF ALEPPO. 1
similar in character to those we find scattered throughout
Asia Minor ; there is the same inaccurate drawing, the
same rough execution, the same tentative and awkward
composition. The scribes from force of custom still
employed the cuneiform syllabary in certain official
religious or royal inscriptions, but, as it was difficult to
manipulate and limited in application, the speech of the
Aramaean immigrants and the Phoenician alphabet gradually
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph reproduced in Peters.
54 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
superseded the ancient language and mode of writing. 1
Thus these Northern Syrians became by degrees assimilated
THE WAR-CHARIOT OF THE KEIATI OF THE MXTH OBHTCBY.
to the people of Babylon and Nineveh, much as the
1 There is no monument bearing an inscription in this alphabet which
can be referred with any certainty to the time of Assur-nazir-pal, but the
inscriptions of the kings of Samalla date back to a period not more than a
century and a half later than his reign; we may therefore consider
Aramaean alphabet as being in current use in Northern Syria at the begin
ning of the ninth century, some forty years before the date of Mesh
inscription (i.e. the Moabite stone).
2 Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief.
SYRIAN ARTS, ARMIES, AND RELIGIONS
55
inhabitants of a remote province nowadays adapt their
dress, their architecture, their implements of husbandry
and handicraft, their military equipment and organisation,
to the fashions of the capital. 1 Their armies were modelled
on similar lines, and consisted of archers, pikemen, slingers,
THE ASSYRIAN WAK-CHABIOT OF THE NINTH CENTURY B.C. 2
and those troops of horsemen which accompanied the
chariotry on flying raids ; the chariots, moreover, closely
followed the Assyrian type, even down to the padded bar
with embroidered hangings which connected the body of
the chariot with the end of the pole. The Syrian princes
*
1 One can judge of their social condition from the enumeration of the
objects which formed their tribute, or the spoil which the Assyrian kings
carried off from their country.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze bas-relief on the gates of
Balawat.
56 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
did not adopt the tiara, but they wore the long fringed
robe, confined by a girdle at the waist, and their mode
of life, with its ceremonies, duties, and recreations, differed
little from that prevailing in the palaces of Calah or
Babylon. They hunted big game, including the lion,
according to the laws of the chase recognised at Nineveh,
priding themselves as much on their exploits in hunting,
A KING OF THE KIIATI HUNTING A LION IN HIS CHARIOT. 1
as on their triumphs in war. Their religion was derived
from the common source which underlay all Semitic
religions, but a considerable number of Babylonian deities
were also worshipped ; these had been introduced in some
cases without any modification, whilst in others they had
been assimilated to more ancient gods bearing similar
characteristics : at Nerab, among the Patina, Nusku and
his female companion Nikal, both of Chaldaean origin,
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Hogarth, published in the
Recueil de Travaux.
ASSIR-NAZIR-PAL S EXPEDITION
57
claimed the homage of the faithful, to the disparagement
of Shahr the moon and Sharnash the sun. Local cults
often centred round obscure deities held in little account
by the dominant races ; thus Samalla reverenced Uru the
light, Eekubel the wind, the chariot of
El, not to mention El himself, Eesheph,
Hadad, and the Cabiri, the servants of
Eesheph. These deities were mostly of
the Assyrian type, and if one may draw
any conclusion from the few representa
tions of them already discovered, their
rites must have been celebrated in a
manner similar to that followed in the
cities on the Lower Euphrates. Scarcely
any signs of Egyptian influence survived,
though here and there a trace of it
might be seen in the figures of calf or
bull, the vulture of Mut or the sparrow-
hawk of Horus. Assur-nazir-pal, march
ing from the banks of the Khabur to
Bit-Adini, and from Bit-Adini passing
on to Northern Syria, might almost
have imagined himself still in his own
dominions, so gradual and imperceptible
were the changes in language and civilisation in the
country traversed between Nineveh and Assur, Tul-Barsip
and Samalla.
His expedition was unattended by danger or bloodshed.
Lubarna, the reigning prince of the Patina, was possibly at
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph in Luschan.
THE GOD HADA1). 1
58 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
that juncture meditating the formation of a Syrian empire
under his rule. Unki, in which lay his capital of Kunulua,
was one of the richest countries of Asia, 1 being well watered
by the Afrin, Orontes, and Saluara ; 2 no fields produced such
rich harvests as his, no meadows pastured such cattle or
were better suited to the breeding of war-horses. His
mountaiD provinces yielded him wood and minerals, and
RELIGIOUS SCENE DISPLAYING EGYPTIAN FEATURES. 1
provided a reserve of semi-savage woodcutters and herds
men from which to recruit his numerous battalions. The
neighbouring princes, filled with uneasiness or jealousy by
his good fortune, saw in the Assyrian monarch a friend and
1 The Unki of the Assyrians, the Uniuqa of the Egyptians, is the valley
of Antioch, the Amk of the present day. Kunulua or Kinalia, the capital of
the Patina, has been identified with the Gindaros of Greek times ; I prefer
to identify it with the existing Tell-Kunana, written for Tell-Kunala by the
common substitution of n for I at the end of proper names.
2 The Saluara of the Assyrian texts is the present Kara-su, which flows
into the Ak-Deniz, the lake of Antioch.
3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression taken from a Hittite
cylinder.
SUBMISSION OF THE HITTITES AND THE PATINA 59
a liberator rather than an enemy. Carchemish opened its
gates and laid at his feet the best of its treasures twenty
talents of silver, ingots, rings, and daggers of gold, a
hundred talents of copper, two hundred talents of iron,
bronze bulls, cups decorated with scenes in relief or outline,
ivory in the tusk or curiously wrought, purple and em
broidered stuffs, and the state carriage of its King Shangara.
The Hittite troops, assembled in haste, joined forces with
the Aramaean auxiliaries, and the united host advanced on
Coale-Syria. The scribe commissioned to record the
history of this expedition has taken a delight in inserting
the most minute details. Leaving Carchemish, the army
followed the great caravan route, and winding its way
between the hills of Munzigani and Khamurga, skirting
Bit-Agusi, at length arrived under the walls of Khazazu
among the Patina. 1 The town having purchased immunity
by a present of gold and of finely woven stuffs, the army
proceeded to cross the Aprie, on the bank of which an en
trenched camp was formed for the storage of the spoil.
Lubarna offered no resistance, but nevertheless refused
to acknowledge his inferiority ; after some delay, ib was
decided to make a direct attack on his capital, Kunulua,
whither he had retired. The appearance of the Assyrian
vanguard put a speedy end to his ideas of resistance :
prostrating himself before his powerful adversary, he offered
hostages, and emptied his palaces and stables to provide a
1 Khazazu being the present Azaz, the Assyrian army must have followed
the route which still leads from Jerabis to this town. Mount Munzigani and
Khamurga, mentioned between Carchemish and Akhanu or lakhanu, must
lie between the Sajur and the Koweik, near Shehab, at the only point on.
the route where the road passes between two ranges of lofty hills.
60 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
ransom. This comprised twenty talents of silver, one
talent of gold, a hundred talents of lead, a hundred talents
of iron, a thousand bulls, ten thousand sheep, daughters of
his nobles with befitting changes of garments, and all the
paraphernalia of vessels, jewels, and costly stuffs which
formed the necessary furniture .of a princely household.
The effect of his submission on his own vassals and the
neighbouring tribes was shown in different ways. Bit-
Agusi at once sent messengers to congratulate the
conqueror, but the mountain provinces awaited the in
vader s nearer approach before following its example.
Assur-nazir-pal, seeing that they did not take the initiative,
crossed the Orontes, probably at the spot where the iron
bridge now stands, and making his way through the
country between laraku and laturi, 1 reached the banks of
the Sangura 2 without encountering any difficulty. After a
1 The spot where Assur-nazir-pal must have crossed the Orontes is deter
mined by the respective positions of Kunulua and Tell-Kuiifma. At the iron
bridge, the modern traveller has the choice of two roads: one, passing Antioch
and Beit-el-Ma, leads to Urdeh on the Nahr-el-Kebir ; the other reaches the
same point by a direct route over the Gebel Kosseir. If, as I believe, Assur-
nazir-pal took the latter route, the country and Mount laraku must be the
northern part of Gebel Kosseir in the neighbourhood of Antioch, and laturi,
the southern part of the same mountain near Derkush. laraku is mentioned
in the same position by Shalmaneser III., who reached it after crossing the
Orontes, on descending from the Amanos en route for the country of Hamath.
2 The Sangura or Sagura has been identified by Delattre with the Nahr-
el-Kebir, not that river which the Greeks called the Eleutheros, but that
which flows into the sea near Latakia. Before naming the Sangura, the
Annals mention a country, whose name, half effaced, ended in -ku : I think
we may safely restore this name as [Ashtamajkou, mentioned by Shal
maneser III. in this region, after the name of laraku. The country of
Ashtamaku would thus be the present canton of Urdeh, which is traversed
before reaching the banks of the Nahr-el-Kebir.
SACRIFICES TO THE GODS 61
brief halt there in camp, he turned his back on the sea, and
passing between Saratini and Duppani, 1 took by assault the
fortress of Aribua. 2 This stronghold commanded all the
surrounding country, and was the seat of a palace which
Lubarna at times used as a similar residence. Here Assur-
nazir-pal took up his quarters, and deposited within its
walls the corn and spoils of Lukhuti ; 3 he established here
an Assyrian colony, and, besides being the scene of royal
festivities, it became henceforth the centre of operations
against the mountain tribes. The forts of the latter were
destroyed, their houses burned, and prisoners were impaled
outside the gates of their cities. Having achieved this
noble exploit, the king crossed the intervening spurs of
Lebanon and marched down to the shores of the Mediter
ranean. Here he bathed his weapons in the waters, and
offered the customary sacrifices to the gods of the sea,
while the Phoenicians, with their wonted prudence, hastened
to anticipate his demands Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Mahallat,
1 The mountain cantons of Saratini and Duppani (Kalpani ? Adpani ?),
situated immediately to the south of the Nahr-el-Kebir, correspond to the
southern part of Gebel-el-Akrad, but I cannot discover any names on the
modern map at all resembling them.
2 Beyond Duppani, Assur-nazir-pal encamped on the banks of a river
whose name is unfortunately effaced, and then reached Aribua ; this itine
rary leads us to the eastern slope of the Gebel Ansarieh in the latitude of
Hamath. The only site I can find in this direction fulfilling the requirements
of the text is that of Masiad, where there still exists a fort of the Assassins.
The name Aribua is perhaps preserved in that of Rabao, er-Rabahu, which
is applied to a wady and village in the neighbourhood of Masiad.
3 Lukhuti must not be sought in the plains of the Orontes, where Assur-
nazir-pal would have run the risk of an encounter with the King of Hamath
or his vassals ; it must represent the part of the mountain of Ansarieh lying
between Kadmus, Masiad, and Tortosa.
62 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Maiza, Kaiza, the Amorites and Arvad, 1 all sending tribute.
One point strikes us forcibly as we trace on the map the
march of this victorious hero, namely, the care with which
he confined himself to the left bank of the Orontes, and the
restraint he exercised in leaving untouched the fertile fields
of its valley, whose wealth was so calculated to excite his
cupidity. This discretion would be inexplicable, did we not
know that there existed in that region a formidable power
which he may have thought it imprudent to provoke. It
was Damascus which held sway over those territories whose
frontiers he respected, and its kings, also suzerains of
Hamath and masters of half Israel, were powerful enough
to resist, if not conquer, any enemy who might present
himself. The fear inspired by Damascus naturally explains
the attitude adopted by the Hittite states towards the
invader, and the precautions taken by the latter to restrict
his operations within somewhat narrow limits. Having
accepted the complimentary presents of the Phoenicians,
the king again took his way northwards making a slight
detour in order to ascend the Amanos for the purpose of
erecting there a stele commemorating his exploits, and of
cutting pines, cedars, and larches for his buildings and
then returned to Nineveh amid the acclamations of his
people.
In reading the history of this campaign, its plan and
the principal events which took place in it appear at
1 The point where Assur-nazir-pal touched the sea-coast cannot be exactly
determined : admitting that he set out from Masiad or its neighbourhood,
he must have crossed the Lebanon by the gorge of the Eleutheros, and
reached the sea-board somewhere near the mouth of this river.
THE WISDOM OP ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL 63
times to be the echo of what had happened some centuries
before. The recapitulation of the halting-places near the
sources of the Tigris and on the banks of the Upper
Euphrates, the marches through the valleys of the Zagros
or on the slopes of Kashiari, the crushing one by one of
the Mesopotamian races, ending in a triumphal progress
through Northern Syria, is almost a repetition, both as
to the names and order of the places mentioned, of the
expedition made by Tiglath-pileser in the first five years
of his reign. The question may well arise in passing
whether Assur-nazir-pal consciously modelled his campaign
on that of his ancestor, as, in Egypt, Eamses III. imitated
Ramses II., or whether, in similar circumstances, he in
stinctively and naturally followed the same line of march.
In either case, he certainly showed on all sides greater
wisdom than his predecessor, and having attained the
object of his ambition, avoided compromising his success
by injudiciously attacking Damascus or Babylon, the two
powers who alone could have offered effective resistance.
The victory he had gained, in 879, over the brother of
Nabu-baliddin had immensely flattered his vanity. His
panegyrists vied with each other in depicting Karduniash
bewildered by the terror of his majesty, and the Chaldaeans
overwhelmed by the fear of his arms ; but he did not
allow himself to be carried away by their extravagant
flatteries, and continued to the end of his reign to observe
the treaties concluded between the two courts in the time
of his grandfather Ramman-nirari. 1 He had, however,
1 His frontier on the Chaldsean side, between the Tigris and the
mountains, was the boundary fixed by Ramman-nirari.
64 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
sufficiently enlarged his dominions, in less than ten years,
to justify some display of pride. He himself described his
empire as extending, on the west of Assyria proper, from
the banks of the Tigris near Nineveh to Lebanon and
the Mediterranean ; l besides which, Sukhi was subject
to him, and this included the province of Eapiku on the
frontiers of Babylonia. 2 He had added to his older pro
vinces of Amidi, Masios and Singar, the whole strip of
Armenian territory at the foot of the Taurus range,
from the sources of the Supnat to those of the Bitlis-
tchai, and he held the passes leading to the banks of
the Arzania, in Kirruri and Gilzan, while the extensive
country of Nairi had sworn him allegiance. Towards
the south-east the wavering tribes, which alternately gave
their adherence to Assur or Babylon according to cir
cumstances, had ranged themselves on his side, and
formed a large frontier province beyond the borders
of his hereditary kingdom, between the Lesser Zab and
the Turnat. But, despite repeated blows inflicted on
them, he had not succeeded in welding these various
factors into a compact and homogeneous whole ; some
small proportion of them were assimilated to Assyria,
1 The expression employed in this description and in similar passages,
ishtu ibirtan ndru, translated from the ford over the river, or better, from the
other side of the river, must be understood as referring to Assyria proper :
the territory subject to the king is measured in the direction indicated,
starting from the rivers which formed the boundaries of his hereditary
dominions. From the other bank of the Tigris means from the bank of the
Tigris opposite Nineveh or Calah, whence the king and his army set out on
their campaigns.
2 Rapiku is mentioned in several texts as marking the frontier between
the Sukhi and Chaldsea.
PLEDGES OF LOYALTY 65
and were governed directly by royal officials, 1 but the
greater number were merely dependencies, more or less
insecurely held by the obligations of vassalage or servitude.
In some provinces the native chiefs were under the
surveillance of Assyrian residents ; 2 these districts paid an
annual tribute proportionate to the resources and products
of their country : thus Kirruri and the neighbouring states
contributed horses, mules, bulls, sheep, wine, and copper
vessels ; the Aramaeans gold, silver, lead, copper, both
wrought and in the ore, purple, and coloured or embroidered
stuffs ; while Izalla, Nirbu, Nirdun, and Bit-Zamani had
to furnish horses, chariots, metals, and cattle. The less
civilised and more distant tribes were not, like these,
subject to regular tribute, but each time the sovereign
traversed their territory or approached within reasonable
distance, their chiefs sent or brought to him valuable
presents as fresh pledges of their loyalty. Boyal outposts,
built at regular intervals and carefully fortified, secured
the fulfilment of these obligations, and served as depots
for storing the commodities collected by the royal officials ;
such outposts were, Damdamusa on the north-west of the
Kashiari range, Tushkhan on the Tigris, Tilluli between
the Supnat and the Euphrates, Aribua among the Patina,
and others scattered irregularly between the Greater and
Lesser Zab, on the Khabur, and also in Nalri. These
strongholds served as places of refuge for the residents
There were royal governors in Suru in Bit*Khalupi, in Matiate, in
Madara, and in ISTairi.
There were Assyrian residents in Kirruri and the neighbouring
countries, in Kirkhi, and in Nairi.
VOL. VII.
66 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
and their guards in case of a revolt, and as food- depots
for the armies in the event of war bringing them into
their neighbourhood. In addition to these, Assur-nazir-pal
also strengthened the defences of Assyria proper by build
ing fortresses at the points most open to attack; he re
paired or completed the defences of Kaksi, to command
the plain between the Greater and Lesser Zab and the
Tigris ; he rebuilt the castles or towers which guarded the
river-fords and the entrances to the valleys of the Gebel
Makhlub, and erected at Calah the fortified palace which
his successors continued to inhabit for the ensuing five
hundred years.
Assur-nazir-pal had resided at Nineveh from the time of
his accession to the throne ; from thence he had set out on
four successive campaigns, and thither he had returned at
the head of his triumphant troops, there he had received
the kings who came to pay him homage, and the governors
who implored his help against foreign attacks ; thither he
had sent rebel chiefs, and there, after they had marched in
ignominy through the streets, he had put them to torture
and to death before the eyes of the crowd, and their skins
were perchance still hanging nailed to the battlements
when he decided to change the seat of his capital. The
ancient capital no longer suited his present state as a
conqueror; the accommodation was too restricted, the
decoration too poor, and probably the number of apart
ments was insufficient to house the troops of women and
slaves brought back from his wars by its royal master.
Built on the very bank of the Tebilti, one of the tributaries
of the Khusur, and hemmed in by three temples, there was
ERECTION OP THE PALACE AT CALAH
67
no possibility of its enlargement a difficulty which often
occurs in ancient cities. The necessary space for new
buildings could only have been obtained by alteriog the
course of the stream, and sacrificing a large part of the
adjoining quarters of the city : Assur-nazir-pal therefore
preferred to abandon the place and to select a new site
-.-,* - \ flkVJV
- *& J- ., " ""*
iftrSj iT ** Ba!g; 5VW "
- -
.
THE MOUXDS OF CALAH. 1
where he would have ample space at his disposal. He
found what he required close at hand in the half-ruined
city of Calah, where many of his most illustrious
predecessors had in times past sought refuge from the heat
of Assur. It was now merely an obscure and sleepy town
about twelve miles south of Nineveh, on the right bank of
the Tigris, and almost at the angle made by the junction of
this river with the Greater Zab. The place contained a
palace built by Shalmaneser I., which, owing to many
Drawn by Boudier, from Layard . The pointed mound on the left near
the centre of the picture represents the ziggui-at of the great temple.
68 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
years neglect, liad become uninhabitable. Assur-nazir-pal
not only razed to the ground the palaces and temples, but
also levelled the mound on which they had been built ; he
then cleared away the soil down to the water level, and
threw up an immense and al
most rectangular terrace 011
which to lay out his new build
ings. The king chose Ninip,
the god of war, as the patron of
the city, and dedicated to
..
him, at the north-west corner
of the terrace, a ziggurat
-\ with its usual temple pre
cincts. Here the god
was represented as a bull
with a man s head and
, : ,. bust in gilded alabaster,
and two yearly feasts
were instituted in his
honour, one in the month
Sebat, the other in the
month Ulul. The zig-
gurat was a little over
STELE OF ASSUK-XAZIU-PAL AT CALAH. 1
two hundred feet high,
and was probably built in seven stages, of which only
one now remains intact : around it are found several in
dependent series of chambers and passages, which may have
been parts of other temples, but it is now impossible
to say which belonged to the local Belit, which to Sin,
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell.
ASSYRIAN ART IN THE NINTH CENTURY 69
to Gula, to Eamman, or to the ancient deity Ea. At
the entrance to the largest chamber, on a rectangular
pedestal, stood a stele with rounded top, after the Egyptian
fashion. On it is depicted a figure of the king, standing
erect and facing to the left of the spectator ; he holds
his mace at his side, his right hand is raised in the atti
tude of adoration, and above him, on the left upper edge
of the stele, are grouped the five signs of the planets ; at
the base of the stele stands an altar with a triangular
pedestal and circular slab ready for the offerings to be
presented to the royal founder by priests or people. The
palace extended along the south side of the terrace facing
the town, and with the river in its rear; it covered a
space one hundred and thirty-one yards in length and a
hundred and nine in breadth. In the centre was a large
court, surrounded by seven or eight spacious halls, appro
priated to state functions ; between these and the court
were many rooms of different sizes, forming the offices and
private apartments of the royal house. The whole palace
was built of brick faced with stone. Three gateways,
flanked by winged, human-headed bulls, afforded access to
the largest apartment, the hall of audience, where the king
received his subjects or the envoys of foreign powers. 1 The
doorways and walls of some of the rooms were decorated
with glazed tiles, but the majority of them were covered
with bands of coloured 2 bas-reliefs which portrayed various
At the east end of the hall Layard found a block of alabaster covered
with inscriptions, forming a sort of platform on which the king s throne may
have stood.
! Layard points out the traces of colouring still visible when the
excavations were made.
70 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
episodes in the life of the king his state-councils, his lion
hunts, the reception of tribute, marches over mountains
and rivers, chariot- skirmishes, sieges, and the torture and
carrying away of captives. Incised in bands across these
pictures are inscriptions extolling the omnipotence of Assur,
while at intervals genii with eagles beaks, or deities in
human form, imperious and fierce, appear with hands full of
THE WINGED BULLS OF ASSUR-XAZIR-PAL.i
offerings, or in the act of brandishing thunderbolts against
evil spirits. The architect who designed this imposing
decoration, and the sculptors who executed it, closely
followed the traditions of ancient Chaldaea in the drawing
and composition of their designs, and in the use of colour
or chisel ; but the qualities and defects peculiar to their
own race give a certain character of originality to this
borrowed art. They exaggerated the stern and athletic
aspect of their models, making the figure thick-set, the
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.
BRARY)
/">)
sc\ I
INTERNAL DECORATION OF THE PALACE
71
muscles extraordinarily enlarged, and the features ludicrously
accentuated. Their pictures produce an impression of
awkwardness, confusion and heaviness, but the detail is
so minute and the animation so great that the attention of
GLAZED TILE FROil PALACE OF CALAH. 1
the spectator is forcibly arrested ; these uncouth beings
impress us with the sense of their self-reliance and their
confidence in their master, as we watch them brandishing
their weapons or hurrying to the attack, and see the shock
of battle and the death-blows given and received. The
human-headed bulls, standing on guard at the gates, exhibit
1 Drawn by Boudier, after Layard.
72 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the calm and pensive dignity befitting creatures conscious
of their strength, while the lions passant who sometimes
replace them, snarl and show their teeth with an almost
alarming ferocity. The statues of men and gods, as a rule,
are lacking in originality. The heavy robes which drape
them from head to foot give them the appearance of
LION FROM ASSUK- SAZIR-PAL S PALACE. 1
cylinders tied in at the centre and slightly flattened
towards the top. The head surmounting this shapeless
bundle is the only life-like part, and even the lower half
of this is rendered heavy by the hair and beard, whose
tightly curled tresses lie in stiff rows one above the other.
The upper part of the face which alone is visible is correctly
drawn ; the expression is of rather a commonplace type of
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the sculpture in the British
Museum.
THE TUNNEL OF NEGUB 73
nobility respectable but self-sufficient. The features-
eyes, forehead, nose, mouth are all those of Assur-nazir-
pal ; the hair is arranged in the fashion he affected, and the
robe is embroidered with his jewels ; but amid all this we
miss the keen intelligence always present in Egyptian
sculpture, whether under the royal head-dress of Cheops or
in the expectant eyes of the sitting scribe : the Assyrian
sculptor could copy the general outline of his model fairly
well, but could not infuse soul into the face of the conqueror,
whose " countenance beamed above the destruction around
him."
The water of the Tigris being muddy, and unpleasant
to the taste, and the wells at Calah so charged with lime
and bitumen as to render them unwholesome, Assur-nazir-
pal supplied the city with water from the neighbouring
Zab. 1 An abundant stream was diverted from this river at
the spot now called Negub, and conveyed at first by a
tunnel excavated in the rock, and thence by an open canal
to the foot of the great terrace : at this point the flow of
the water was regulated by dams, and the surplus was
utilised for irrigation 3 purposes by means of openings cut
in the banks. The aqueduct was named Babilat-khigal
the bringer of plenty and, to justify the epithet, date-
palms, vines, and many kinds of fruit trees were planted
The presence of bitumen in the waters of Calah is due to the hot springs
which rise in the bed of the brook Shor-derreh.
1 The canal of Negub Negub signifies liole in Arabic was discovered
by Layard. The Zab having changed its course to the south, and scooped
out a deeper bed for itself, the double arch, which serves as an entrance to
the canal, is actually above the ordinary level of the river, and the water
flows through it only in flood-time.
74 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
along its course, so that both banks soon assumed the
appearance of a shady orchard interspersed with small
towns and villas. The population rapidly increased, partly
through the spontaneous influx of Assyrians themselves,
but still more through the repeated introduction of bands of
A CORNER OF THE RUIXED PALACE OF ASSUR-XAZIR-PAL. 1
foreign prisoners : forts, established at the fords of the
Zab, or commanding the roads which cross the Gebel
Makhlub, kept the country in subjection and formed an
inner line of defence at a short distance from the capital.
Assur-nazir-pal kept up a palace, garden, and small temple,
near the fort of Imgur-Bel, the modern Balawat : thither
he repaired for intervals of repose from state affairs, to
enjoy the pleasures of the chase and cool air in the hot
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Rassam.
THE LAST YEARS OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL 75
season. He did not entirely abandon his other capitals,
Nineveh and Assur, visiting them occasionally, but Calah
was his favourite seat, and on its adornment he spent the
greater part of his wealth and most of his leisure hours.
Only once again did he abandon his peaceful pursuits
and take the field, about the year 897 B.C., during the
eponymy of Shamashnuri. The tribes on the northern
boundary of the empire had apparently forgotten the
lessons they had learnt at the cost of so much bloodshed
at the beginning of his reign : many had omitted to pay
the tribute due, one chief had seized the royal cities of
Amidi and Damdamusa, and the rebellion threatened to
spread to Assyria itself. Assur-nazir-pal girded on his
armour and led his troops to battle as vigorously as in the
days of his youth. He hastily collected, as he passed
through their lands, the tribute due from Kipani, Izalla,
and Kummukh, gained the banks of the Euphrates,
traversed Gubbu burning everything on his way, made a
detour through Dirria and Kirkhi, and finally halted before
the walls of Damdamusa. Six hundred soldiers of the
garrison perished in the assault and four hundred were
taken prisoners : these he carried to Amidi and impaled as
an object-lesson round its walls ; but, the defenders of the
town remaining undaunted, he raised the siege and plunged
into the gorges of the Kashiari. Having there reduced
to submission Uda, the capital of Lapturi, son of Tubisi,
he returned to Calah, taking with him six thousand
prisoners whom he settled as colonists around his favourite
residence. This was his last exploit : he never subse
quently quitted his hereditary domain, but there passed
76 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the remaining seven years of his life in peace, if not in
idleness. He died in 860 B.C., after a reign of twenty-
five years. His portraits represent him as a vigorous
man, with a brawny neck and broad shoulders, capable
of bearing the weight of his armour for many hours
at a time. He is short in the head, with a somewhat
flattened skull and low forehead; his eyes are large and
deep-set beneath bushy eyebrows, his cheek-bones high,
and his nose aquiline, with a fleshy tip and wide nostrils,
while his mouth and chin are hidden by moustache and
beard. The whole figure is instinct with real dignity, yet
such dignity as is due rather to rank and the habitual
exercise of power, than to the innate qualities of the man. 1
The character of Assur-nazir-pal, as gathered from the dry
details of his Annals, seems to have been very complex.
He was as ambitious, resolute, and active as any prince in
the world ; yet he refrained from offensive warfare as soon
as his victories had brought under his rule the majority of
the countries formerly subject to Tiglath-pileser I. He
knew the crucial moment for ending a campaign, arresting
his progress where one more success might have brought
him into collision with some formidable neighbour ; and
this wise prudence in his undertakings enabled him to
retain the principal acquisitions won by his arms. As a
worshipper of the gods he showed devotion and gratitude ;
he was just to his subjects, but his conduct towards his
Perrot and Chipiez do not admit that the Assyrian sculptors intended
to represent the features of their kings ; for this they re]y chiefly on the
remarkable likeness between all the figures in the same series of bas-reliefs.
My own belief is that in Assyria, as in Egypt, the sculptors took the
portrait of the reigning sovereign as the model for all their figures.
SHALMANESER III.
77
enemies was so savage as to appear to us cruel even for
that terribly pitiless age: no king ever employed such
horrible punishments, or at least none has described with
such satisfaction the tortures inflicted on his vanquished
foes. Perhaps such measures were
necessary, and the harshness with
which he repressed insurrection
prevented more frequent outbreaks
and so averted greater sacrifice of
life. But the horror of these
scenes so appals the modern
reader, that at first he can only
regard Assur-nazir-pal as a royal
butcher of the worst type.
Assur-nazir-pal left to his suc
cessor an overflowing treasury, a
valiant army, a people proud of
their progress and fully confident
in their own resources, and a
kingdom which had recovered,
during several years of peace, from
the strain of its previous con
quests. Shalmaneser III.* drew
largely on the reserves of men
and money which his father s foresight had prepared,
and his busy reign of thirty-five years saw thirty-two
* [The Shalmaneser III. of the text is the Shalmaneser II. of the notes.
-TR.]
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell, taken from the
SHALMAXESEK III.
original stele in the British Museum.
78 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
campaigns, conducted almost without a break, on every
side of the empire in succession. A double task awaited
him, which he conscientiously and successfully fulfilled.
Assur-nazir-pal had thoroughly reorganised the empire
and raised it to the rank of a great power : he had
confirmed his provinces and vassal states in their allegi
ance, and had subsequently reduced to subjection, or, at
any rate, penetrated at various points, the little buffer
principalities between Assyria and the powerful kingdoms
of Babylon, Damascus, and Urartu; but he had avoided
engaging any one of these three great states in a struggle
of which the issue seemed doubtful. Shalmaneser could
not maintain this policy of forbearance without loss of
prestige in the eyes of the world : conduct which might
seem prudent and cautious in a victorious monarch like
Assur-nazir-pal would in him have argued timidity or weak
ness, and his rivals would soon have provoked a quarrel if
they thought him lacking in the courage or the means to
attack them. Immediately after his accession, therefore, he
assumed the offensive, and decided to measure his strength
first against Urartu, which for some years past had been
showing signs of restlessness. Few countries are more
rugged or better adapted for defence than that in which his
armies were about to take the field. The volcanoes to
which it owed its configuration in geological times, had
become extinct long before the appearance of man, but the
surface of the ground still bears evidence of their former
activity ; layers of basaltic rock, beds of scoriae and cinders,
streams of half-disintegrated mud and lava, and more or less
perfect cones, meet the eye at every turn. Subterranean
THE SXOW-CLAD PEAKS
79
disturbances have not entirely ceased even now, for certain
craters that of Tandurek, for example sometimes exhale
acid fumes ; while hot springs exist in the neighbourhood,
from which steaming waters escape in cascades to the
valley, and earthquakes and strange subterranean noises are
not unknown. The backbone of these Armenian mountains
.
THE TWO TEAKS OF MOUNT ARARAT. 1
joins towards the south the line of the Gordya3an range ;
it runs in a succession of zigzags from south-east to north
west, meeting at length the mountains of Pontus and the
last spurs of the Caucasus.. Lofty snow-clad peaks, chiefly
of volcanic origin, rise here and there among them, the
most important being Akhta-dagh, Tandurek, Ararat,
Bingcel, and Palandoeken. The two unequal pyramids
which form the summit of Ararat are covered with per
petual snow, the higher of them being 16,916 feet above
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by A. Tissandier.
80 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the sea-level. The spurs which issue from the principal
chain cross each other in all directions, and make a net
work of rocky basins where in former times water collected
and formed lakes, nearly all of which are now dry in
consequence of the breaking down of one or other of
their enclosing sides. Two only of these mountain lakes
still remain, entirely devoid of outlet, Lake Van in the
south, and Lake Urumiah further to the south-east. The
Assyrians called the former the Upper Sea of Nairi, and
the latter the Lower Sea, and both constituted a defence for
Urartu against their attacks. To reach the centre of the
kingdom of Urartu, the Assyrians had either to cross the
mountainous strip of land between the two lakes, or by
making a detour to the north-west, and descending the
difficult slopes of the valley of the Arzania, to approach the
mountains of Armenia lying to the north of Lake Yan.
The march was necessarily a slow and painful one for both
horses and men, along narrow winding valleys down which
rushed rapid streams, over raging torrents, through tangled
forests where the path had to be cut as they advanced, and
over barren wind-swept plateaux where rain and mist
chilled and demoralized soldiers accustomed to the warm
and sunny plains of the Euphrates. The majority of the
armies which invaded this region never reached the goal of
the expedition : they retired after a few engagements, and
withdrew as quickly as possible to more genial climes.
The main part of the Urartu remained almost always
unsubdued behind its barrier of woods, rocks, and lakes,
which protected it from the attacks levelled against it, and
no one can say how far the kingdom extended in the
A REGION OF CONTRASTS 81
direction of the Caucasus. It certainly included the valley
of the Araxes and possibly part of the valley of the Kur,
and the steppes sloping towards the Caspian Sea. It was
a region full of contrasts, at once favoured and ill-treated
by nature in its elevation and aspect : rugged peaks, deep
gorges, dense thickets, districts sterile from the heat of
subterranean fires, and sandy wastes barren for lack of
moisture, were interspersed with shady valleys, sunny vine-
clad slopes, and wide stretches of fertile land covered with
rich layers of deep alluvial soil, where thick-standing corn
and meadow-lands, alternating with orchards, repaid the
cultivator for the slightest attempt at irrigation.
History does not record who were the former possessors
of this land ; but towards the middle of the ninth century
it was divided into several principalities, whose position
and boundaries cannot be precisely determined. It is
thought that Urartu lay on either side of Mount Ararat and
on both banks of the Araxes, that Biainas lay around Lake
Van, 1 and that the Mannai occupied the country to the
north and east of Lake Urumiah ; a the positions of the
1 Urartu is the only name by which the Assyrians knew the kingdom of
Van ; it has been recognised from the very beginning of Assyriological
studies, as well as its identity with the Ararat of the Bible and the
Alarodians of Herodotus. It was also generally recognised that the name
Biainas in the Vannic inscriptions, which Hincks read Bieda, corresponded to
the Urartu of the Assyrians, but in. consequence of this mistaken reading,
efforts have been made to connect it with Adiabene. Sayce was the first to
show that Biainas was the name of the country of Van, and of the kingdom
of which Van was the capital ; the word Bitani which Sayce connects with
it is not a secondary form of the name of Van, but a present day term,
and should be erased from the list of geographical names.
The Mannai are the Minni of Jeremiah (li. 27), and it is in their
country of Minyas that one tradition made the ark rest after the Deluge.
VOL. VII, G
82 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
other tribes on the different tributaries of the Euphrates or
the slopes of the Armenian mountains are as yet uncertain.
The country was probably peopled by a very mixed race,
for its mountains have always afforded a safe asylum for
refugees, and at each migration, which altered the face of
Western Asia, some fugitives from neighbouring nations
drifted to the shelter of its fastnesses. The principal
THE KINGDOM
OF URARTU.
Scale.
wn%- %/w ?PM?C-
fff^fg^:^!!
element, the Khaldi, were akin to that great family of
tribes which extended across the range of the Taurus, from
the shores of the Mediterranean to the Euxine, and in
cluded the Khalybes, the Mushku, the Tabal, and the
Khati. The little preserved of their language resembles
what we know of the idioms in use among the people of
Arzapi and Mitanni, and their religion seems to have been
somewhat analogous to the ancient worship of the Hittites.
The character of the ancient Armenians, as revealed
to us by the monuments, resembles in its main features
THE TRIBES OF URARTU
83
that of the Armenians of the present time. They appeal-
as tall, strong, muscular, and determined, full of zest for
work and fighting, and proud of their independence. Some
of them led a pastoral life, wandering about with their
flocks during the greater part of the year, obliged to seek
pasturage in valley, forest, or mountain height according
to the season,
while in winter
they remained
frost-bound in
seini - subter
ranean dwell
ings similar to
those in which their
descendants immure
themselves at the
present day. Where
the soil lent itself to agricul
ture, they proved excellent
husbandmen, and obtained FRAGMENT OF \ VOTIVE SHIELD OF
, UKARTIAN WOKK. 1
abundant crops. Their inge
nuity in irrigation was remarkable, and enabled them to
bring water by a system of trenches from distant springs to
supply their fields and gardens ; besides which, they knew
how to terrace the steep hillsides so as to prevent the
rapid draining away of moisture. Industries were but little
developed among them, except perhaps the working of
metals ; for were they not akin to those Chalybes of the
Pontus, whose mines and forges already furnished iron to
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hormuzd Rassam.
84 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the Grecian world ? Fragments have been discovered in
the ruined cities of Urartu of statuettes, cups, and votive
shields, either embossed or engraved, and decorated with
concentric bands of animals or men, treated in the Assyrian
manner, but displaying great beauty of style and remarkable
SITE OF AK URABTIAK TOWN AT TOPRAH-KALEH. 1
finish of execution. Their towns were generally fortified or
perched on heights, rendering them easy of defence, as, for
example, Van and Toprah-Kaleh. Even such towns as
were royal residences were small, and not to be compared
with the cities of Assyria or Aram ; their ground-plan
generally assumed the form of a rectangular oblong, not
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
DWELLINGS: RICH AND POOR
85
always traced with equal exactitude. The walls were built
of blocks of roughly hewn stone, laid in regular courses, but
without any kind of mortar or cement; they were sur
mounted by battlements, and flanked at intervals by square
towers, at the foot of which were outworks to protect the
THE RUINS OF A PALACE OF URARTU AT TOPRAH-KALEII. 1
points most open to attack. The entrance was approached
by narrow and dangerous pathways, which sometimes ran
on ledges across the precipitous face of the rock. The
dwelling-houses were of very simple construction, being
merely square cabins of stone or brick, devoid of any
external ornament, and pierced by one low doorway, but
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Hormuzd Rassam.
80 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
sometimes surmounted by an open colonnade supported by
a row of small pillars ; a flat roof with a parapet crowned
the whole, though this was often replaced by a gabled top,
which was better adapted to withstand the rains and snows
of winter. The palaces of the chiefs differed from the
private houses in the size of their apartments and the
greater care bestowed upon their decoration. Their
facades were sometimes adorned with columns, and orna
mented with bucklers or carved discs of metal ; slabs of
stone covered with inscriptions lined the inner halls, but
we do not know whether the kings added to their dedica
tions to the gods and the recital of their victories, pictures
of the battles they had fought and of the fortresses they
had destroyed. The furniture resembled that in the houses
of Nineveh, but was of simpler workmanship, and perhaps
the most valuable articles were imported from Assyria or
were of Aramasan manufacture. The temples seemed to
have differed little from the palaces, at least in external
appearance. The masonry was more regular and more
skilfully laid ; the outer court was filled with brazen lavers
and statues ; the interior was furnished with altars,
sacrificial stones, idols in human or animal shape, and
bowls identical with those in the sanctuaries on the
Euphrates, but the nature and details of the rites in which
they were employed are unknown. One supreme deity,
Khaldis, god of the sky, was, as far as we can conjecture,
the protector of the whole nation, and their name was
derived from his, as that of the Assyrians was from Assur,
the Cosseans from Kashshu, and the Khati from Khatu.
This deity was assisted in the government of the universe
FIRST CAMPAIGN OF SHALMANESER III.
89
by Teisbas, god of the air, and Ardinis the sun-god.
Groups of secondary deities were ranged around this sove
reign triad Auis, the water; Ayas, the earth; Selardis,
the moon ; Kharubainis, Irmusinis, Adarutas, and Arzi-
rnelas : one single inscription enumerates forty-six, but
some of these were worshipped in special localities only.
ASSYRIAN SOLDIERS CARRYING OFF OR DESTROYING THE FURNITURE OF AN
UKARTIAN TEMPLE. 1
It would appear as if no goddesses were included in the
native Pantheon. Saris, the only goddess known to us
at present, is probably merely a variant of the Ishtar of
Nineveh or Arbela, borrowed from the Assyrians at a later
date.
The first Assyrian conquerors looked upon these
northern regions as an integral part of Nairi, and included
them under that name. They knew of no single state in
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Botta. Scribes are weighing gold,
and soldiers destroying the statue of a god with their axes.
90 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the district whose power might successfully withstand their
own, but were merely acquainted with a group of hostile
provinces whose internecine conflicts left them ever at the
mercy of a foreign foe. 1 Two kingdoms had, however, risen
to some importance about the beginning of the ninth
century that of the Mannai in the east, and that of
Urartu in the centre of the country. Urartu comprised
SHALMANESEU III. CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS IN HIS CHAIUOT. 2
the district of Ararat proper, the province of Biaina,
and the entire basin of the Arzania. Arzashkun, one
of its capitals, situated probably near the sources of
this river, was hidden, and protected against attack, by an
extent of dense forest almost impassable to a regular army.
The power of this kingdom, though as yet unorganised,
1 The single inscription of Tiglath-pileser I. contains a list of twenty -
three kings of Nam, and mentions sixty chiefs of the same country.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the bronze
gates of Balawat.
OX THE SHORES OF LAKE VAX 91
had already begun to inspire the neighbouring states with
uneasiness. Assur-nazir-pal speaks of it incidentally as
lying on the northern frontier of his empire, 1 but the care
he took to avoid arousing its hostility shows the respect
in which he held it. He was, indeed, as much afraid of
Urartu as of Damascus, and though he approached quite
close to its boundary in his second campaign, he preferred
to check his triumphant advance rather than risk attacking
it. It appears to have been at that time under the undis
puted rule of a certain Sharduris, son of Lutipri, and
subsequently, about the middle of Assur-nazir-pal s reign,
to have passed into the hands of Ararne, who styled himself
King of Nairi, and whose ambition may have caused those
revolts which forced Assur-nazir-pal to take up arms in the
eighteenth year of his reign. On this occasion the
Assyrians again confined themselves to the chastisement
of their own vassals, and checked their advance as soon as
they approached Urartu. Their success was but temporary ;
hardly had they withdrawn from the neighbourhood, when
the disturbances were renewed with even greater violence,
very probably at the instigation of Arame. Shalmaneser
III. found matters in a very unsatisfactory state both on
the west and south of Lake Van : some of the peoples who
had been subject to his father the Khubushkia, the
pastoral tribes of the G ordysean mountains, and the
1 Arzashku, Arzashkun, seems to be the Assyrian form of an Urartian
name ending in -lea, formed from a proper name Arzash, which recalls the
name Arsene, Arsissa, applied by the ancients to part of Lake Van.
Arzashkun jwj.^ht represent the Ardzik of the Armenian historians, west of
MaJasgertr,
92 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Aramaeans of the Euphrates had transferred their allegi
ance elsewhere. He immediately took measures to recall
them to a sense of their duty, and set out from Calah only
a few days after succeeding to the crown. He marched at
first in an easterly direction, and, crossing the pass of
Simisi, burnt the city of Aridi, thus proving that he was
fully prepared to treat rebels after the same fashion as
his father. The lesson had immediate effect. All the
neighbouring tribes, Khargaeans, Simis&ans, the people of
Simira, Sirisha, and Ulmania, hastened to pay him homage
even before he had struck his camp near Aridi. Hurrying
across country by the shortest route, which entailed the
making of roads to enable his chariots and cavalry to follow
him, he fell upon Khubushlda, and reduced a hundred
towns to ashes, pursuing the king Kakia into the depths
of the forest, and forcing him to an unconditional sur
render. Ascending thence to Shugunia, a dependency of
Arame s, he laid the principality waste, in spite of the
desperate resistance made on their mountain slopes by
the inhabitants; then proceeding to Lake Van, he per
formed the ceremonial rites incumbent on an Assyrian king
whenever he stood for the first time on the shores of a new
sea. He washed his weapons in the waters, offered a
sacrifice to the gods, casting some portions of the victim
into the lake, and before leaving carved his own image on
the surface of a commanding rock. On his homeward
march he received tribute from Gilzan. This expedition
was but the prelude of further successes. After a few
weeks repose at Nineveh, he again set out to make his
authority felt in the western portions of his dominions.
FURTHER SUCCESSES
93
Akhuni, chief of Bit-Adini, whose position was the first to
be menaced, had formed a league with the chiefs of all the
cities which had formerly bowed before Assur-nazir-pal s
victorious arms, G-urgum, Samalla, Kui, the Patina, Car-
chemish, and the Khati. Shalmaneser seized Lalati l and
THE PEOPLE OF SHUGUNIA FIGHTIXG AGADTST THE ASSYRIANS. 2
Burinarana, two of Akhuni s towns, drove him across the
Euphrates, and following close on his heels, collected as he
passed the tribute of Gurgum, and fell upon Samalla.
Under the walls of Lutibu he overthrew the combined
forces of Adini, Samalla, and the Patina, and raised a
1 Lalati is probably the Lulati of the Egyptians. The modern site is
not known, nor is that of Burmarana.
; Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the bronze
gates of Balawat.
91 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
trophy to commemorate his victory at the sources of the
Saluara ; then turning sharply to the south, he crossed the
Orontes in pursuit of Shapalulme, King of the Patina.
Not far from Alizir he encountered a fresh army raised by
Akhuni and the King of Samalla, with contingents from
Carchemish, Kui, Cilicia, and lasbuki : l having routed it,
I KISOXERS FROM SHUGOriA, WITH THEIR ARMS TIED AND YOKES OK THEIR NECKS. 2
he burnt the fortresses of Shapalulme, and after occupying
himself hy cutting down cedars and cypress trees on the
Amanos in the province of Atalur, he left a triumphal
stele engraved on the mountain-side. Next turning east
wards, he received the homage offered with alacrity by the
1 The country of lasbuki is represented by Ishbak, a son of Abraham
and Keturah, mentioned in Genesis (xxv. 2) in connection with Shuah.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas reliefs on the bronze
of Balawtit,
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RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN 07
towns of Taia, Khazazu, Nulia, and Butamu, and, with a
final tribute from Agusi, he returned in triumph to
Nineveh. The motley train which accompanied him showed
by its variety the immense extent of country he had
traversed during this first campaign. Among the prisoners
were representatives of widely different races ; Khati with
long robes and cumbrous head-dresses, following naked
mountaineers from Shugunia, who marched with yokes on
their necks, and wore those close-fitting helmets with short
crests which have such a strangely modern look on the
Assyrian bas-reliefs. The actual results of the campaign
were, perhaps, hardly commensurate with the energy
expended. This expedition from east to west had certainly
inflicted considerable losses on the rebels against whom it
had been directed ; it had cost them dearly in men and
cattle, and booty of all kinds, and had extorted from them
a considerable amount of tribute, but they remained,
notwithstanding, still unsubdued. As soon as the Assyrian
troops had quitted their neighbourhood, they flattered
themselves they were safe from further attack. No doubt
they thought that a show of submission would satisfy the
new invader, as it had satisfied his father; but Shalmaneser
was not disposed to rest content with this nominal depend
ence. He intended to exercise effective control over all
the states won by his sword, and the proof of their subjection
was to be the regular payment of tribute and fulfilment
of other obligations to their suzerain. Year by year he
unfailingly enforced his rights, till the subject states were
obliged to acknowledge their master and resign themselves
to servitude.
VOL. VII. H
98 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
The narrative of his reiterated efforts is a monotonous
one. The king advanced against Adini in the spring
of 859 B.C., defeated Akhuni near Tul-barsip, transported
his victorious regiments across the Euphrates on rafts
of skins, seized Surunu, Paripa, and Dahigu, 1 besides six
fortresses and two hundred villages, and then advanced
into the territory of Carchemish, which he proceeded to
treat with such severity that the other Hittite chiefs
hastened to avert a similar fate by tendering their sub
mission. The very enumeration of their offerings proves
not only their wealth, but the terror inspired by the
advancing Assyrian host : Shapalulmg of the Patina, for
instance, yielded up three talents of gold, a hundred talents
of silver, three hundred talents of copper, and three
hundred of iron, and paid in addition to this an annual
tribute of one talent of silver, two talents of purple, and
two hundred great beams of cedar-wood. Samalla, Agusi,
and Kummukh were each laid under tribute in proportion
to their resources, but their surrender did not necessarily
lead to that of Adini. Akhuni realised that, situated as he
was on the very borders of Assyrian territory, there was no
longer a chance of his preserving his semi-independence,
as was the case with his kinsfolk beyond the Euphrates ;
proximity to the capital would involve a stricter servitude,
which would soon reduce him from the condition of a
vassal to that of a subject, and make him merely a
1 Shalmaneser crossed the Euphrates near Tul-barsip, which would
lead him into the country between Birejik, Rum-kaleh, and Aintab, and
it is in that district that we must look for the towns subject to Akhuni.
Dabigu, I consider, corresponds to Dehbek on Rey s map, a little to the
north-east of Aintab ; the sites of Paripa and Surunu are unknown.
THE CONQUEST OF BIT ADINI AND OF NAIRI 99
governor where he had hitherto reigned as king. Aban
doned by the Khati, he sought allies further north, and
entered into a league with the tribes of Nalri and Urartu.
When, in 858 B.C., Shalmaneser III. forced an entrance
into Tul-barsip, and drove back what was left of the
garrison on the right bank of the Euphrates, a sudden
movement of Arame obliged him to let the prey escape
from his grasp. Rapidly fortifying Tul-barsip, Nappigi,
Aligu, Pitru, and Mutkiuu, and garrisoning them with
loyal troops to command the fords of the river, as his
ancestor Shalmaneser I. had done six centuries before, 1 he
then re-entered Nalri by way of Blt-Zamani, devastated
Inziti with fire and sword, forced a road through to the
banks of the Arzania, pillaged Sukhmi and Dayatni, and
appeared under the walls of Arzashkun. Arame withdrew
to Mount Adduri and awaited his attack in an almost
impregnable position ; he was nevertheless defeated : 3400
of his soldiers fell on the field of battle ; his camp, his
treasures, his chariots, and all his baggage passed into
the hands of the conqueror, and he himself barely escaped
with his life. Shalmaneser ravaged the country " as a
savage bull ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile
fields ; he burnt the villages and the crops, destroyed
1 Pitru, the Pethor of the Bible (Numb. xxii. 5), is situated near the
confluence of the Sajur and the Euphrates, somewhere near the encampment
called Osheriyeh by Sachau. Mutkinu was on the other bank, perhaps
at Kharbet-Beddai, nearly opposite Pitru. Nappigi was on the left bank
of the Euphrates, which excludes its identification with Mabog-Hierapolis,
as proposed by Hommel ; Nabigath, mentioned by Tomkins, is too far east.
Nappigi and Aligu must both be sought in the district between the
Euphrates and the town of Saruj.
100 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Arzaslikun, and raised before its gates a pyramid of human
heads, surrounded by a circle of prisoners impaled on
stakes. He climbed the mountain chain of Iritia, and
laid waste Aramali and Zanziuna at his leisure, and
descending for the second time to the shores of Lake
Van, renewed the rites he had performed there in the
SHUA, KING OF GILZAN, BRINGING A WAR-HORSE FULLY CAPARISONED TO
SHAL3IANESER. 1
first year of his reign, and engraved on a neighbouring
rock an inscription recording his deeds of prowess. He
made his way back to Gilzan, where its king, Shua, brought
him a war-horse fully caparisoned, as a token of homage.
Shalmaneser graciously deigned to receive it, and further
exacted from the king the accustomed contributions of
chariot-horses, sheep, and wine, together with seven
dromedaries, whose strange forms amused the gaping
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the Black
Obelisk.
SHALMANESER RETURNS TO ASSUR
101
crowds of Nineveh. After quitting Gilzan, Shalmaneser
encountered the people of Khubushkia, who ventured to
bar his way ; but its king, Kakia, lost his city of Shilaia,
and three thousand soldiers, besides bulls, horses, and
sheep innumerable. Having enforced submission in Khu
bushkia, Shalmaneser at length returned to Assur through
DROMEDARIES FROM GILZAN. 1
the denies of Kirruri, and came to Calah to enjoy a
well-earned rest after the fatigues of his campaign. But
Akhuni had not yet lost heart. Though driven back
to the right bank of the Euphrates, he had taken advantage
of the diversion created by Ararne in his favour, to assume
a strong position among the hills of Shitamrat with the
river in his rear. 2 Shalmaneser attacked his lines in
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the bronze
gates of Balawat.
1 The position of Shitamrat may answer to the ruins of the fortress
of Rum-kaleh, which protected a ford of the Euphrates in Byzantine times.
102 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
front, and broke through them after three days preliminary
skirmishing ; then finding the enemy drawn up in battle
array before their last stronghold, the king charged without
a moment s hesitation, drove them back and forced them
to surrender. Akhuni s life was spared, but he was
sent with the remainder of his army to colonise a village
TRIBUTE FROM GILZAN. 1
in the neighbourhood of Assur, and Adini became hence
forth an integral part of Assyria. The war on the western
frontier was hardly brought to a close when another broke
out in the opposite direction. The king rapidly crossed
the pass of Bunagishlu and fell upon Mazamua : the
natives, disconcerted by his impetuous onslaught, neverthe
less hoped to escape by putting out in their boats on
the broad expanse of Lake Urumiah. Shalmaneser, how-
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the Black
Obelisk.
THE FIRST ATTACK ON DAMASCUS 103
ever, constructed rafts of inflated skins, on which his
men ventured in pursuit right out into the open. The
natives were overpowered ; the king " dyed the sea with
their blood as if it had been wool," and did not withdraw
until he had forced them to appeal for mercy.
In five years Shalmaneser had destroyed Adini, laid
low Urartu, and confirmed the tributary states of Syria
in their allegiance ; but Damascus and Babylon were as
yet untouched, and the moment was a-t hand when he
would have to choose between an arduous conflict with
them, or such a repression of the warlike zeal of his
opening years, that, like his father Assur-nazir-pal, he
would have to repose on his laurels. Shalmaneser was
too deeply imbued with the desire for conquest to choose
a peaceful policy : he decided at once to assume the
offensive against Damascus, being probably influenced by
the news of Ahab s successes, and deeming that if the
King of Israel had gained the ascendency unaided, Assur,
fully confident of its own superiority, need have no fear
as to the result of a conflict. The forces, however, at the
disposal of Benhadad II. (Adadidri) were sufficient to cause
the Assyrians some uneasiness. The King of Damascus
was not only lord of Coale- Syria and the Hauran, but he
exercised a suzerainty more or less defined over Hamath,
Israel, Ammon, the Arabian and Idumean tribes, Arvad
and the principalities of Northern Phoenicia, Usanata,
Shianu, and Irkanata ; l in all, twelve peoples or twelve
Irkanata, the Egyptian Arqanatu, perhaps the Irqata of the Tel-
el-Amarna tablets, is the Arka of Phoenicia. The other countries
enumerated are likewise situated in the same locality. Shianu (for a long
104 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
kings owned his sway, and their forces, if united to his,
would provide at need an army of nearly 100,000 men:
a few years might see these various elements merged in
a united empire, capable of withstanding the onset of any
foreign foe. 1 Shalmaneser set out from Nineveh on the
14th day of the month lyyar, 854 B.C., and chastised on
his way the Aramaeans of the Balikh, whose sheikh
Giammu had shown some inclination to assert his in
dependence. He crossed the Euphrates at Tul-barsip,
and held a species of durbar at Pitru for his Syrian
subjects : Sangar of Carchemish, Kundashpi of Kuminukh,
Arame of Agusi, Lalli of Melitene, Khaiani of Samalla,
Garparuda who had succeeded Shapalulme among the
Patina, and a second Garparuda of Gurgum, rallied around
him with their presents of welcome, and probably also with
their troops. This ceremony concluded, he hastened to
Khalman and reduced it to submission, then plunged into
the hill-country between Khalman and the Orontes, and
swept over the whole territory of Hamath. A few easy
victories at the outset enabled him to exact ransom from,
time read as Shizanu), the Sin of the Bible (Gen. x. 17), is mentioned by
Tiglath-pileser III. under the name Sianu. Ushanat is called
by Tiglath-pileser, and Delitzsch thought it represented the modern Kalaat-
el-Hosu. With Arvad it forms the ancient Zahi of the Egyptians, which
was then subject to Damascus.
i The suzerainty of Ben-hadad over these twelve peoples is proved
by the way in which they are enumerated in the Assyrian documents :
his name always stands at the head of the list. The manner in which
the Assyrian scribes introduce the names of these kings, mentioning some
times one, sometimes two among them, without subtracting them from the
total number 12, has been severely criticised, and Schrader excused
by saying that 12 is here used as a round number somewhat vaguely.
THE BATTLE OF QARQAR
105
or burn to the ground, the cities of Adinnu, Mashga,
Argaoa, and Qarqar, but just beyond Qarqar he encountered
the advance-guard of the Syrian army. 1 Ben-hadad had
called together, to give him a fitting reception, the
whole of the forces at his disposal: 1200 chariots, 1200
horse, 20,000 foot-soldiers from Damascus alone ; 700
TRIBUTE FROM GARPARUDA, KING OF THE PATINA. 1
chariots, 700 horse and 10,000 foot from Hamath; 2000
chariots and 10,000 foot belonging to Ahab, 500 soldiers
1 The position of these towns is uncertain : the general plan of the
campaign only proves that they must lie on the main route from Aleppo to
Kalaat-Sejar, by Bara or by Maaret-en-N6man and Kalaat-el-Mudiq. It is
agreed that Qarqar must be sought not far from Hamath, whatever the
exact site may be. An examination of the map shows us that Qarqar
corresponds to the present Kalaat-el-Mudiq, the ancient Apamsea of
Lebanon ; the confederate army would command the ford which led to the
plain of Hamath by Kalaat-Sejar.
! Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the Black
Obelisk.
106 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
from Kui, 1000 mountaineers from the Taurus, 1 10 chariots
and 10,000 foot from Irkanata, 200 from Arvad, 200 from
Usanata, 30 chariots and 10,000 foot from Shianu, 1000
camels from Gindibu the Arab, and 1000 Ammonites.
The battle was long and bloody, and the issue uncertain ;
Shalmaneser drove back one wing of the confederate army
to the OrouteSj and forcing the other wing and the centre
to retire from Qarqar to Kirzau, claimed the victory,
though the losses on both sides were equally great. It
would seem as if the battle were indecisive the Assyrians,
at any rate, gained nothing by it ; they beat a retreat
immediately after their pretended victory, and returned to
their own land without prisoners and almost without booty.
On the whole, this first conflict had not been unfavourable
to Damascus : it had demonstrated the power of that state
in the eyes of the most incredulous, and proved how easy
resistance would be, if only the various princes of Syria
would lay aside their differences and all unite under the
command of a single chief. The effect of the battle in
Northern Syria and among the recently annexed Aramaean
tribes was very great ; they began to doubt the omni
potence of Assyria, and their loyalty was shaken. Sangar
of Carchemish and the Khati refused to pay their tribute,
and the Emirs of Tul-Abni and Mount Kashiari broke out
into open revolt. Shalmaneser spent a whole year in
suppressing the insurrection ; complications, moreover,
arose at Babylon which obliged him to concentrate his
1 The people of the Muzri next enumerated have long been considered
as Egyptians ; the juxtaposition of their name with that of Kui shows that
it refers here to the Muzri of the Taurus.
THE WAR AGAINST BABYLON 107
attention and energy on Chaldaean affairs. Nabu-baliddin
had always maintained peaceful and friendly relations with
Assyria, but he had been overthrown, or perhaps assassi
nated, and his son Marduk-nadin-shumu had succeeded
him on the throne, to the dissatisfaction of a section of
his subjects. Another son of Nabu-baliddin, Marduk-
belusate, claimed the sovereign power, and soon won over
so much of the country that Marduk-nadin-shumu had fears
for the safety of Babylon itself. He then probably re
membered the pretensions to Kharduniash, which his
Assyrian neighbours had for a long time maintained, and
applied to Shalmaneser to support his tottering fortunes.
The Assyrian monarch must have been disposed to lend
a favourable ear to a request which allowed him to inter
vene as suzerain in the quarrels of the rival kingdom : he
mobilised his forces, offered sacrifices in honour of Bamman
at Zaban, and crossed the frontier in 853 B.C. 1
The war dragged on during the next two years. The
scene of hostilities was at the outset on the left bank of
the Tigris, which for ten centuries had served as the
battle-field for the warriors of both countries. Shalma
neser, who had invested Me-Turnat at the fords of the
Lower Diyalah, at length captured that fortress, and after
having thus isolated the rebels of Babylonia proper,
turned his steps towards Gananate. 2 Marduk-belusate, " a
1 The town of Zaban is situated on the Lesser Zab, but it is impossible
to fix the exact site.
2 Me-Turnat, Me-Turni, "the water of the Turnat," stood upon the
Diyalah, probably near the site of Bakuba, where the most frequented
route crosses the river ; perhaps we may identify it with the Artemita
of classical authors. Gananate must be sought higher up near the
108 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
vacillating king, incapable of directing his own affairs,"
came out to meet him, but although repulsed and driven
within the town, he defended his position with such spirit
that Shalmaneser was at length obliged to draw off his
troops after having cut down all the young corn, felled the
fruit trees, disorganised the whole system of irrigation, in
short, after having effected all the damage he could. He
returned in the following spring by the most direct route ;
Lakhiru fell into his hands, 1 but Marduk-belusate, having
no heart to contend with him for the possession of a
district ravaged by the struggle of the preceding summer,
fell back on the mountains of Yasubi and concentrated
his forces round Arm an. 2 Shalmaneser, having first
wreaked his vengeance upon Gananate, attacked his
adversary in his self-chosen position ; Arm an fell after
a desperate defence, and Marduk-belusate either perished
or disappeared in a last attempt at retaliation. Marduk-
nadin-shumu, although rid of his rival, was not yet master
of the entire kingdom. The Aramaaans of the Marshes,
or, as they called themselves, the Kalda, had refused him
their allegiance, and were ravaging the regions of the
Lower Euphrates by their repeated incursions. They con
stituted not so much a compact state, as a confederation
mountains, as the context points out ; I am inclined to place it near the
site of Khanekin, whose gardens are still celebrated, and the strategic
importance of which is considerable.
1 Lakhiru comes before Gananate on the direct road from Assyria, to the
south of the Lower Zab, as we learn from the account of the campaign
itself : we shall not do wrong in placing this town either at Kifri, or in its
neighbourhood on the present caravan route.
2 Mount Yasubi is the mountainous district which separates Khanekin
from Holwan.
THE WAR AGAINST BABYLOX 109
of little states, alternately involved in petty internecine
quarrels, or temporarily reconciled under the precarious
authority of a sole monarch. Each separate state bore
the name of the head of the family real or mythical-
from whom all its members prided themselves on being
descended, Bit-Dakkuri, Blt-Adini, Bit-Amukkani, Bit-
Shalani, Bit-Shalli, and finally Bit-Yakin, which in the
end asserted its predominance over all the rest. 1 In
demanding Shalmaneser s help, Marduk-nadin-shumu had
virtually thrown on him the responsibility of bringing these
turbulent subjects to order, and the Assyrian monarch
accepted the duties of his new position without demur.
He marched to Babylon, entered the city and went direct
to the temple of E-shaggil : the people beheld him approach
with reverence their deities Bel and Bellt, and visit all
the sanctuaries of the local gods, to whom he made end
less propitiatory libations and pure offerings. He had
worshipped Ninip in Kuta ; he was careful not to forget
Nabo of Borsippa, while on the other hand he officiated
in the temple of Ezida, and consulted its ancient oracle,
offering upon its altars the flesh of splendid oxen and
fat lambs. The inhabitants had their part in the festival
as well as the gods; Shalmaneser summoned them to
a public banquet, at which he distributed to them
embroidered garments, and plied them with meats and
wine; then, after renewing his homage to the gods of
1 As far as we can judge, Bit-Dakkuri and Bit-Adini were the most
northerly, the latter lying on both sides of the Euphrates, the former on
the west of the Euphrates, to the south of the Bahr-i-Nejif ; Bit-Yakin was
at the southern extremity near the mouths of the Euphrates, and on the
western shore of the Persian Gulf.
110 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Babylon, he recommenced his campaign, and set out in
the direction of the sea. Baqani, the first of the Chaldasan
cities which ]ay on his route, belonged to Bit-Adini, 1 one
of the tribes of Bit-Dakkuri ; it appeared disposed to resist
him, and was therefore promptly dismantled and burnt-
an example which did not fail to cool the warlike inclina
tions which had begun to manifest themselves in other
parts of Blfc-Dakkuri. He next crossed the Euphrates,
and pillaged Enzudi, the fate of which caused the remainder
of Bit-Adini to lay down arms, and the submission of the
latter brought about that of Bit-Yakin and Bit-Amukkani.
These were all rich provinces, and they bought oif the
conqueror liberally : gold, silver, tin, copper, iron, acacia-
wood, ivory, elephants skins, were all showered upon
the invader to secure his mercy. It must have been an
intense satisfaction to the pride of the Assyrians to be
able to boast that their king had deigned to offer sacrifices
in the sacred cities of Accad, and that he had been borne
by his war-horses to the shores of the Salt Sea; these
facts, of little moment to us now, appeared to the people
of those days of decisive importance. No king who was
not actually master of the country would have been
tolerated within the temple of the eponymous god, for
the purpose of celebrating the rites which the sovereign
alone was empowered to perform. Marduk-nadin-shurnu,
1 The site of Baqani is unknown ; it should be sought for between
Lamlum and Warka, and Bit-Adini in Bit-Dakkuri should be placed
between the Shatt-et-Kaher and the Arabian desert, if the name of Enzudi,
the other royal town, situated to the west of the Euphrates, is found,
as is possible, under a popular etymology, in that of Kalaat ain-Said or
Kalaat ain-es-Said in the modern maps.
HOSTILITIES AGAINST DAMASCUS RESUMED 111
in recognising Shalmaneser s right to act thus, thereby
acknowledged that he himself was not only the king s
ally, but his liegeman. This bond of supremacy doubtless
did not weigh heavily upon him ; as soon as his suzerain
had evacuated the country, the two kingdoms remained
much on the same footing as had been established by the
treaties of the three previous generations. Alliances were
made between private families belonging to both, peace
existed between the two sovereigns, interchange of com
merce and amenities took place between the two peoples,
but with one point of difference which had not existed
formerly : Assur protected Babel, and, by taking pre
cedence of Marduk, he became the real head of the peoples
of the Euphrates valley. Assured of the subordination,
or at least of the friendly neutrality of Babylon, Shalma-
neser had now a free hand to undertake a campaign in
the remoter regions of Syria, without being constantly
haunted by the fear that his rival might suddenly swoop
down upon him in the rear by the valleys of the Radanu
or the Zabs. He now ran no risks in withdrawing his
troops from the south-eastern frontier, and in marshalling
his forces on the slopes of the Armenian Alps or on the
banks of the Orontes, leaving merely a slender contingent
in the heart of Assyria proper to act as the necessary
guardians of order in the capital.
Since the indecisive battle of Qarqar, the western
frontier of the empire had receded as far as the Euphrates,
and Shalmaneser had been obliged to forego the collection
of the annual Syrian tribute. It would have been an
excellent opportunity for the Khati, while they enjoyed
112 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
this accidental respite, to come to an understanding with
Damascus, for the purpose of acting conjointly against
a common enemy ; but they let the right moment slip,
and their isolation made submission inevitable. The effort
to subdue them cost Shalmaneser dear, both in time and
men ; in the spring of each year he appeared at the fords
of Tul-barsip and ravaged the environs of Carchemish,
then marched upon the Orontes to accomplish the
systematic devastation of some fresh district, or to inflict
a defeat on such of his adversaries as dared to encounter
him in the open field. In 850 B.C. the first blow was
struck at the Khati ; Agusi l was the next to suffer, and
its king, Aram, lost Arnie, his royal city, with some
hundred more townships and strongholds. 2 In 849 B.C.
it was the turn of Damascus. The league of which Ben-
hadad had proclaimed himself the suzerain was still in
existence, but it had recently narrowly escaped dissolution,
1 Historians hare up to the present admitted that this campaign of
the year 850 took place in Armenia. The context of the account itself
shows us that, in his tenth year, Shalmaneser advanced against the towns of
Arame", immediately after having pillaged the country of the Khati, which
inclines me to think that these towns were situated in Northern Syria.
I have no doubt that the Arame in question is not the Armenian king
of that name, but Arame the sovereign of Bit- Agusi, who is named several
times in the Annals of Shalmaneser.
2 The text of Bull No. 1 adds to the account of the war against Arame,
that of a war against the Damascene league, which merely repeats the
account of Shalmaneser s eleventh year. It is generally admitted that the
war against Arame falls under his tenth year, and the war against Ben-
hadad during his eleventh year. The scribes must have had at their
disposal two different versions of one document, in which these two wars
were described without distinction of year. The compiler of the inscription
of the Bulls would have considered them as forming two distinct accounts,
which he has placed one after the other.
JEHOSHAPHATS MISTAKEN ALLIANCE 113
and a revolt had almost deprived it of the adherence of
Israel and the house of Omri after Hamath, the most
active of all its members. The losses suffered at Qarqar
had doubtless been severe enough to shake Ahab s faith
in the strength of his master and ally. Besides this, it
would appear that the latter had not honourably fulfilled
all the conditions of the treaty of peace he had signed
three years previously ; he still held the important fortress
of Ramoth-gilead, and he delayed handing it over to Ahab
in spite of his oath to restore it. Finding that he could
not regain possession of it by fair means, Ahab resolved
to take it by force. 1 A great change in feeling and politics
had taken place at Jerusalem. Jehoshaphat, who occupied
the throne, was, like his father Asa, a devout worshipper
of Jahveh, but his piety did not blind him to the secular
needs of the moment. The experience of his predecessors
had shown that the union of the twelve tribes under the
rule of a scion of Judah was a thing of the past for ever ;
all attempts to restore it had ended in failure and blood
shed, and the house of David had again only lately been
saved from ruin by the dearly bought intervention of
Ben-hadad I. and his Syrians. Jehoshaphat from the
outset clearly saw the necessity of avoiding these errors
of the past ; he accepted the situation and sought the
friendship of Israel. An alliance between two princes so
unequal in power could only result in a disguised suzerainty
for one of them and a state of vassalage for the other ;
what Ben-hadad s alliance was to Ahab, that of Ahab
was to Jehoshaphat, and it served his purpose in spite
1 1 Kings xxii. 3.
VOL. VII. I
Ill ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
of the opposition of the prophets. 1 The strained relations
between the two countries were relaxed, and the severed
tribes on both sides of the frontier set about repairing their
losses; while Hiel the Bethelite at length set about
rebuilding Jericho on behalf of Samaria, 2 Jehoshaphat was
collecting around him a large army, and strengthening
himself on the west against the Philistines and on the
south against the Bedawin of the desert. 3 The marriage
of his eldest son Jehoram * with Athaliah subsequently
bound the two courts together by still closer ties ; 4 mutual
1 The subordinate position of Jehoshaphat is clearly indicated by the
reply which he makes to Ahab when the latter asks him to accompany him
on this expedition : "I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses
as thy horses " (1 Kings xxii. 4).
2 1 Kings xvi. 34, where the writer has preserved the remembrance of a
double human sacrifice, destined, according to the common custom in the
whole of the East, to create guardian spirits for the new building : " he laid
the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up the
gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub ; according to the word
of the Lord." [For the curse pronounced on whoever should rebuild Jericho,
sec Josh. vi. 26. TE.]
3 2 Chron. xvii. 10-19, where the narrative must have some basis of
truth.
* [Following the distinction in spelling given in 2 Kings viii. 25, 1
everywhere written Joram (of Israel) and Jehoram (of Judah), to avoid
confusion. TB.]
4 Athaliah is sometimes called the daughter of Ahab (2 Kings viii. 1 B),
and sometimes the daughter of Omri (2 Kings viii. 26 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxii. 2),
and several authors prefer the latter filiation, while the majority see in it a
mistake of the Hebrew scribe. It is possible that both attributions may be
correct, for we see by the Assyrian inscriptions that a sovereign is called the
son of the founder of his line even when he was several generations removed
from him : thus, Merodach-baladan, the adversary of Sargon of Assyria, calls
himself son of lakin, although the founder of the Bit-Iakm had been dead
many centuries before his accession. The document used in 2 Kings viii. 2
may have employed the term dauyliter of Omri in the same manner
DEATH OF AHAB 115
visits were exchanged, and it was on the occasion of a
stay made by Jehoshaphat at Jezreel that the expedition
against Bamoth was finally resolved on. It might well
have appeared a more than foolhardy enterprise, and it
was told in Israel that Micaiah, a prophet, the son of
Irnlah, had predicted its disastrous ending. " I saw,"
exclaimed the prophet, " the Lord sitting on His throne,
and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand
and on His left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice
Ahab that he may go up and fall at Eamoth-gilead ?
And one said on this manner, and another said on that
manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before
the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord
said unto him, Wherewith ? And he said, I will go forth,
and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
And He said, Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail
also : go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the
Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these
thy prophets ; and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning
thee." 1
The two kings thereupon invested Eamoth, and
Ben-hadad hastened to the defence of his fortress.
Selecting thirty-two of his bravest charioteers, he com
manded them to single out Ahab only for attack, and not
fight with others until they had slain him. This injunction
happened in some way to come to the king s ears, and he
therefore disguised himself as a common soldier, while
merely to indicate that the Queen of Jerusalem belonged to the house of
Omri.
1 Kings xxii. 5-23, reproduced in 2 Chron. xviii. 4-22.
116 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Jehoshaphat retained his ordinary dress. Attracted by the
richness of the latter s armour, the Syrians fell upon him,
but on his raising his war-cry they perceived their mistake,
and turning from the King of Judah they renewed their
quest of the Israelitish leader. While they were vainly
seeking him, an archer drew a bow " at a venture," and
pierced him in the joints of his cuirass. " Wherefore he
said to his charioteer, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of
the host; for I am sore wounded." Perceiving, however,
that the battle was going against him, he revoked the order,
and remained on the field the whole day, supported by his
armour-bearers. He expired at sunset, and the news of his
death having spread panic through the ranks, a cry arose,
" Every man to his city, and every man to his country !
The king s followers bore his body to Samaria, 1 and Israel
1 1 Kings xxii. 28-38 (cf. 2 Chron. xviii. 28-34), with interpolations in
verses 35 and 38. It is impossible to establish the chronology of this period
with any certainty, so entirely do the Hebrew accounts of it differ from the
Assyrian. The latter mention Ahab as alive at the time of the battle of
Qarqar in 854 B.C. and Jehu on the throne in 842 B.C. We must, therefore,
place in the intervening twelve years, first, the end of Ahab s reign;
secondly, the two years of Ahaziah ; thirdly, the twelve years of Joram ;
fourthly, the beginning of the reign of Jehuin all, possibly fourteen years.
The reign of Joram has been prolonged beyond reason by the Hebrew
annalists, and it alone lends itself to be curtailed. Admitting that the
siege of Samaria preceded the battle of Qarqar, we may surmise that the
three years which elapsed, according to the tradition (1 Kings xxii. 1),
between the triumph of Ahab and his death, fall into two unequal periods,
two previous to Qarqar, and one after it, in such a manner that the revolt
of Israel would have been the result of the defeat of the Damascenes ; Ahab
must have died in 835 B.C., as most modern historians agree. On the other
hand, it is scarcely probable that Jehu ascended the throne at the very
moment that Shalmaneser was defeating Hazael in 842 B.C. ; we can only
carry back his accession to the preceding year, possibly 843. The duration
AN INGLORIOUS VICTORY 117
again relapsed into the position of a vassal, probably under
the same conditions as before the revolt. Ahaziah survived
his father two years, and was succeeded by his brother
Joram. 1 When Shalmaneser, in 849 B.C., reappeared in the
valley of the Orontes, Joram sent out against him his
prescribed contingent, and the conquered Israelites once
more fought for their conqueror. The Assyrians had, as
usual, maltreated the Khati. After having pillaged the
towns of Carchemish and Agusi, they advanced on the
Arnanos, held to ransom the territory of the Patina
enclosed within the bend of the Orontes, and descending
upon Hamath by way of the districts of laraku and Ashta-
maku, they came into conflict with the army of the twelve
kings, though on this occasion the contest was so bloody
that they were forced to withdraw immediately after their
success. They had to content themselves with sacking
Apparazu, one of the citadels of Arame, and with collecting
the tribute of Garparuda of the Patina ; which done, they
skirted the Amanos and provided themselves with beams
of two years for the reign of Ahaziah can only be reduced by a few months,
if indeed as much as that, as it allows of a full year, and part of a second
year (cf. 1 Kings xxii. 51, where it is said that Ahaziah ascended the throne
in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, and 2 Kings iii. 1, where it states that
Joram of Israel succeeded Ahaziah in the 18th year of the same Jehosha
phat) ; in placing these two years between 853 and 851, there will remain
for the reign of Joram the period comprised between 851 and 843, namely,
eight years, instead of the twelve attributed to him by biblical tradition.
1 The Hebrew documents merely make mention of Ahaziah s accession,
length of reign, and death (1 Kings xxii. 40, 51-53, and 2 Kings i. 2-17).
The Assyrian texts do not mention his name, but they state that in 849
" the twelve kings " fought against Shalmaneser, and, as we have already
seen, one of the twelve was King of Israel, here, therefore necessarily
Ahaziah, whose successor was Joram.
118 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
from its cedars. The two following years were spent in
harrying the people of Paqarakhbuni, on the right hank of
the Euphrates, in the dependencies of the ancient kingdom
of Adini (848 B.C.), and in plundering the inhabitants of
Ishtarate in the country of laiti, near the sources of the
Tigris (847 B.C.), till in 846 they returned to try their
fortune again in Syria. They transported 120,000 men
across the Euphrates, hoping perhaps, by the mere mass
of such a force, to crush their enemy in a single battle ;
but Ben-hadad was supported by his vassals, and their
combined army must have been as formidable numerically
as that of the Assyrians. As usual, after the engagement,
Shalmaneser claimed the victory, but he did not succeed
in intimidating the allies or in wresting from them a single
rood of territory. 1 Discouraged, doubtless, by so many
fruitless attempts, he decided to suspend hostilities, at all
events for the present. In 845 B.C. he visited Nairi, and
caused an "image of his royal Majesty" to be carved at
the source of the Tigris close to the very spot where the
stream first rises. Pushing forward through the defiles of
Tunibuni, he next invaded Urartu, and devastated it as
far as the sources of the Euphrates ; on reaching these he
purified his arms in the virgin spring, and offered a sacrifice
to the gods. On his return to the frontier, the chief of
Dayaini " embraced his feet," and presented him with some
thoroughbred horses. In 844 B.C. he crossed the Lower
Zab and plunged into the heart of Namri ; this country
1 The care which the king takes to specify that "with 120,000 men he
crossed the Euphrates in flood-time " very probably shows that this number
was for him in some respects an unusual one.
SHALMANESER RECOMMENCES HOSTILITIES 119
had kmg been under Babylonian influence, and its princes
bore Semitic names, Mardukmudammiq, who was then
its ruler, betook himself to the mountains to preserve his
life ; but his treasures, idols, and troops were carried off to
Assyria, and he was superseded on the throne by lanzu,
the son of Khamban, a noble of Cossaean origin. As might
be expected after such severe exertions, Shalmaneser
apparently felt that he deserved a time of repose, for his
chroniclers merely note the date of 843 B.C. as that of an
inspection, terminating in a felling of cedars in the
Amanos. As a fact, there was nothing stirring on the
frontier. Chaldsea itself looked upon him as a benefactor,
almost as a suzerain, and by its position between Elarn and
Assyria, protected the latter from any quarrel with Susa.
The nations on the east continued to pay their tribute
without coercion, and Namri, which alone entertained
pretensions to independence, had just received a severe
lesson. Urartu had not acknowledged the supremacy
of Assur, but it had suffered in the last invasion, and
Arame had shown no further sign of hostility. The tribes
of the Upper Tigris Kummukh and Adini accepted their
position as subjects, and any trouble arising in that quarter
was treated as merely an ebullition of local dissatisfaction,
and was promptly crushed. , The Khati were exhausted by
the systematic destruction of their towns and their
harvests. Lastly, of the principalities of the Amanos,
Gurgum, Samalla, and the Patina, if some had occasionally
taken part in the struggles for independence, the others had
always remained faithful in the performance of their duties
as vassals. Damascus alone held out, and the valour with
120 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
which she had endured all the attacks made on her showed
no signs of abatement; unless any internal disturbance
arose to diminish her strength, she was likely to be able to
resist the growing power of Assyria for a long time to come.
It was at the very time when her supremacy appeared
to be thus firmly established that a revolution broke out,
the effects of which soon undid the work of the preceding
two or three generations. Ben-hadad, disembarrassed of
Shalmaneser, desired to profit by the respite thus gained
to make a final reckoning with the Israelites. It would
appear that their fortune had been on the wane ever since
the heroic death of Ahab. Immediately after the disaster
at Eamoth, the Moabites had risen against Ahaziah, 1 and
their king, Mesha, son of Kamoshgad, had seized the
territory north of the Arnon which belonged to the tribe
of Gad; he had either killed or carried away the Jewish
population in order to colonise the district with Moabites,
and he had then fortified most of the towns, beginning
with Dhibon, his capital. Owing to the shortness of his
reign, Ahaziah had been unable to take measures to hinder
him ; but Joram, as soon as he was firmly seated on the
throne, made every effort to regain possession of his
province, and claimed the help of his ally or vassal
Jehoshaphat. 2 The latter had done his best to repair the
1 2 Kings iii. 5. The text does not name Ahaziah, and it might be con
cluded that the revolt took place under Joram ; the expression employed by
the Hebrew writer, however, " when Ahab was dead . . . the King of
Moab rebelled against the King of Israel," does not permit of it being placed
otherwise than at the opening of Ahaziah s reign.
2 2 Kings iii. 6, 7, where Jehoshaphat replies to Joram in the same terms
which he had used to Ahab. The chronological difficulties induced Ed.
INSURRECTION OF MOAB 121
losses caused by the war with Syria. Being Lord of Edom,
he had been tempted to follow the example of Solomon,
and the deputy who commanded in his name had con
structed a vessel * at Ezion-geber " to go to Ophir for
gold ; " but the vessel was wrecked before quitting the
port, and the disaster was regarded by the king as a
punishment from Jahveh, for when Ahaziah suggested
that the enterprise should be renewed at their joint
expense, he refused the offer. 1 But the sudden insurrection
of Moab threatened him as much as it did Joram, and he
gladly acceded to the latter s appeal for help. Apparently
the simplest way of approaching the enemy would have
been from the north, choosing Gilead as a base of
operations ; but the line of fortresses constructed by Mesha
at this vulnerable point of his frontier was so formidable,
that the allies resolved to attack from the south after
Meyer to replace the name of Jehoshaphat in this passage by that of his son
Jehoram. As Stade has remarked, the presence of two kings both bearing
the name of Jehoram in the same campaign against Moab would have been
one of those facts which strike the popular imagination, and would not have
been forgotten ; if the Hebrew author has connected the Moabite war with
the name of Jehoshaphat, it is because his sources of information furnished
him with that king s name.
* [Both in the Hebrew and the Septuagint the ships are in the plural
number in 1 Kings xxii. 48, 49. TE.]
1 1 Kings xxii. 48, 49, where the .Hebrew writer calls the vessel con
structed by Jehoshaphat a " ship of Tarshish ; " that is, a vessel built to
make long voyages. The author of the Chronicles thought that the Jewish
expedition to Ezion-geber on the Red Sea was destined to go to Tarshish in
Spain. He has, moreover, transformed the vessel into a fleet, and has
associated Ahaziah in the enterprise, contrary to the testimony of the Book
of Kings; finally, he has introduced into the account a prophet named
Eliezer, who represents the disaster as a chastisement for the alliance with
Ahaziah (2 Chron. xx. 35-37).
122 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AXD STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
passing the lower extremity of the Dead Sea. They
marched for seven days in an arid desert, digging wells
as they proceeded for the necessary supply of water.
Mesha awaited them with his hastily assembled troops on
the confines of the cultivated land ; the allies routed him
and hlockaded him within his city of Kir-hareseth. 1 Closely
beset, and despairing of any help from man, he had
recourse to the last resource which religion provided for
his salvation ; taking his firstborn son, he offered him to
Chemosh, and burnt him on the city wall in sight of the
besiegers. The Israelites knew what obligations this
sacrifice entailed upon the Moabite god, and the succour
which he would be constrained to give to his devotees in
consequence. They therefore raised the siege and dis
banded in all directions. 2 Mesha, delivered at the very
moment that his cause seemed hopeless, dedicated a stele
in the temple of Dhibon, on which he recorded his victories
and related what measures he had taken to protect his
people. 3 He still feared a repetition of the invasion, but
1 Kir-Hareseth or Kir-Moab is the present Kerak, the Krak of mediaeval
times.
2 The account of the campaign (2 Kings iii. 8-27) belongs to the pro
phetic cycle of Elisha, and seems to give merely a popular version of the
event. A king of Edom is mentioned (9-10, 12-13), while elsewhere, under
Jehoshaphat, it is stated " there was no king in Edom " (1 Kings xxii. 47) ;
the geography also of the route taken by the expedition is somewhat con
fused. Finally, the account of the siege of Kir-hareseth is mutilated, and
the compiler has abridged the episode of the human sacrifice, as being too
conducive to the honour of Chemosh and to the dishonour of JahA eh. The
main facts of the account are correct, but the details are not clear, and
do not all bear the stamp of veracity.
3 This is the famous Moabite Stone or stele of Dhibon, discovered by
Clermont-Ganneau in 1868, and now preserved in the Louvre.
DEATH OF JEHOSHAPHAT
123
this misfortune was spared him ; Jehoshaphat was gathered
to his fathers/ and his Edomite subjects revolted on
receiving the news
of his death. Jeho-
ram, his son and
1 The date of the death
of Jehoshaphat may be
fixed as 849 or 848 B.C.
The biblical documents
give us for the period of
the history of Judah fol
lowing on. the death of
Ahab : First, eight years
of Jehoshaphat, from, the
17th year of his reign (1
Kings xxii. 51) to his 25th
(and last) year (1 Kings
xxii. 42) ; secondly, eight
years of Jehoram, son of
Jehoshaphat (2 Kings viii.
17) ; thirdly, one year of
Ahaziah, son of Jehoram
(2 Kings viii. 26) in all
17 years, which must be
reduced and condensed into
the period between 853
B.C., the probable date of
the battle of Ramoth, and
843, the equally probable
date of the accession of
Jehu. The reigns of the
two Ahaziahs are too short
to be further abridged ; we must therefore place the campaign against Moab
at the earliest in 850, during the months which followed the accession of
Joram of Israel, and lengthen Jehoshaphat s reign from 850 to 849. There
will then be room between 849 and 844 for five years (instead of eight) for
the reign of Jehoram of Judah.
2 From a photograph by Faucher-Gudin, retouched by Massias from the
THE MOABITE STONE OR, STELE OF MESHA. 2
124 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
successor, at once took up arms to bring them to a sense
of their duty; but they surrounded his camp, and it was
with difficulty that he cut his way through their ranks
and escaped during the night. The defection of the old
Canaanite city of Libnah followed quickly on this reverse, 1
and Jehoram was powerless to avenge himself on it, the
Philistines and the Bedawin having threatened the western
part of his territory and raided the country. 2 In the midst
of these calamities Judah had no leisure to take further
measures against Mesha, and Israel itself had suffered too
severe a blow to attempt retaliation. The advanced age
of Ben-hadad, and the unsatisfactory result of the campaigns
against Shalmaneser, had furnished Joram with an occasion
for a rupture with Damascus. War dragged on for some
time apparently, till the tide of fortune turned against
Joram, and, like his father Ahab in similar circumstances,
he shut himself within Samaria, where the false alarm of
an Egyptian or Hittite invasion produced a panic in the
Syrian camp, and restored the fortunes of the Israelitish
kiog. 3 Ben-hadad did not long survive the reverse he
original in the Louvre. The fainter parts of the stele are the portions
restored in the original.
1 2 Kings viii. 20-22; cf. 2 Chron. xxi. 8-10.
2 This war is mentioned only in 2 CTiron. xxi. 16, 17, where it is represented
as a chastisement from Jahveh ; the Philistines and " the Arabs which are
beside the Ethiopians " (Kush) seem to have taken Jerusalem, pillaged the
palace, and carried away the wives and children of the king into captivity,
" so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz (Ahaziah), the
youngest of his sons."
3 Kuenen has proposed to take the whole account of the reign of Joram,
son of Ahab, and transfer it to that of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, and this theory
has been approved by several recent critics and historians. On the other
hand, some have desired to connect it with the account of the siege of
ELISHA S COUNSEL SOUGHT 125
had experienced ; he returned sick and at the point of
death to Damascus, where he was assassinated by Hazael,
one of his captains. Hebrew tradition points to the
influence of the prophets in all these events. The aged
Elijah had disappeared, so ran the story, caught up to
heaven in a chariot of fire, but his mantle had fallen on
Elisha, and his power still survived in his disciple. 1 From
far and near Elisha s counsel was sought, alike by Gentiles
as by the followers of the true God ; whether the suppliant
was the weeping Shunamite mourning for the loss of her
only son, 2 or Naaman the captain of the Damascene
chariotry, 3 he granted their petitions, and raised the child
from its bed, and healed the soldier of his leprosy. During
the siege of Samaria, he had several times frustrated the
enemy s designs, and had predicted to Joram not only
the fact but the hour of deliverance, and the circumstances
which would accompany it. 4 Ben-hadad had sent Hazael
to the prophet to ask him if he should recover, and Elisha
had wept on seeing the envoy " Because I know the evil
that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel ; their strong
holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou
slay with the sword, and wilt dash in pieces their little
ones, and rip up their women with child. And Hazael
said, But what is thy servant which is but a dog, that
he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered,
The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over
Samaria in Ahab s reign. I fail to see any reasonable argument which can
be brought against the authenticity of the main fact, whatever opinion may
be held with regard to the details of the biblical narrative.
1 2 Kings ii. 1-15. 2 2 Kings iv. 8-37.
3 2 Kings v. 4 2 Kings vi. 8-33 ; vii.
126 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Syria." On returning to Damascus Hazael gave the
results of his mission in a reassuring manner to Ben-hadad,
but " on the morrow ... he took the coverlet and dipped
it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died."
The deed which deprived it of its king, seriously
affected Damascus itself. It was to Ben-hadad that it
owed most of its prosperity ; he it was who had humiliated
Hamath and the princes of the coast of Arvad, and the
nomads of the Arabian desert. He had witnessed the rise
of the most energetic of all the Israelite dynasties, and he
had curbed its ambition ; Ornri had been forced to pay him
tribute ; Ahab, Ahaziah, and Joram had continued it ;
and Ben-hadad s suzerainty, recognised more or less by
their vassals, had extended through Moab and Judah as far
as the Eed Sea. Not only had he skilfully built up this
fabric of vassal states which made him lord of two-thirds of
Syria, but he had been able to preserve it unshaken for a
quarter of a century, in spite of rebellions in several of his
fiefs and reiterated attacks from Assyria ; Shalmaneser,
indeed, had made an attack on his line, but without
breaking through it, and had at length left him master of
the field. This superiority, however, which no reverse
could shake, lay in himself and in himself alone ; no sooner
had he passed away than it suddenly ceased, and Hazael
found himself restricted from the very outset to the
territory of Damascus proper. 2 Hamath, Arvad, and the
1 2 Kings viii. 7-15.
2 From this point onward, the Assyrian texts which mentioned the
twelve kings of the Khdti, Irkhulini of Hamath and Adadidri (Ben-hadad) of
Damascus, now only name Khazailu of the country of Damascus.
RAMOTH BESIEGED 127
northern peoples deserted the league, to return to it no
more ; Jorain of Israel called on his nephew Ahaziah, who
had just succeeded to Jehoram of Judah, and both together
marched to besiege Kamoth. The Israelites were not
successful in their methods of carrying on sieges ; Jorain,
wounded in a skirmish, retired to his palace at Jezreel,
where Ahaziah joined him a few days later, on the pretext
of inquiring after his welfare. 1 The prophets of both
kingdoms and their followers had never forgiven the family
of Ahab their half-foreign extraction, nor their eclecticism
in the matter of religion. They had numerous partisans in
both armies, and a conspiracy was set on foot against the
absent sovereigns ; Elisha, judging the occasion to be a
propitious one, despatched one of his disciples to the camp
with secret instructions. The generals were all present at
a banquet, when the messenger arrived; he took one of
them, Jehu, the son of Nimshi, on one side, anointed him,
and then escaped. Jehu returned, and seated himself
amongst his fellow-officers, who, unsuspicious of what had
happened, questioned him as to the errand. " Is all well?
Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee ? And he said
unto them, Ye know the man and what his talk was. And
they said, It is false ; tell us now. And he said, Thus and
thus spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I have
anointed thee king over Israel. Then they hasted, and
took every man his garment and put it under him on the
top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is
king." He at once marched on Jezreel, and the two kings,
surprised at this movement, went out to meet him with
1 2 Kings via. 28, 29.
128 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
scarcely any escort. The two parties had hardly met when
Joram asked, " Is it peace, Jehu ? " to which Jehu replied,
" What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother
Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?" Whereupon
Joram turned rein, crying to his nephew, " There is
treachery, Ahaziah." But an arrow pierced him through
the heart, and he fell forward in his chariot. Ahaziah,
wounded near Ibleain, managed, however, to take refuge in
Megiddo, where he died, his servants bringing the body
back to Jerusalem. 1 When Jezebel heard the news, she
guessed the fate which awaited her. She painted her eyes
and tired her head, and posted herself in one of the upper
windows of the palace. As Jehu entered the gates she
reproached him with the words, " Is it peace, thou Zimri
thy master s murderer ? And he lifted up his face to the
window and said, Who is on my side who ? Two or three
eunuchs rose up behind the queen, and he called to them,
Throw her down. So they threw her down, and some of
her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses ; and
he trode her under foot. And when he was come in he did
eat and drink ; and he said, See now to this cursed woman
and bury her; for she is a king s daughter." But nothing
was found of her except her skull, hands, and feet, which
they buried as best they could. Seventy princes, the
entire family of Ahab, were slain, and their heads piled up
on either side of the gate. The priests and worshippers of
1 According to the very curtailed account in 2 Chron. xxii. 9, Ahaziah
appears to have hidden himself in Samaria, where he was discovered and
taken to Jehu, who had him killed. This account may perhaps have
belonged to the different version of which a fragment has been preserved in
2 Kings x. 12-17.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF OMRI JEHU 129
Baal remained to be dealt with. Jehu summoned them to
Samaria on the pretext of a sacrifice, and massacred them
before the altars of their god. 1 According to a doubtful
tradition, the brothers and relatives of Ahaziah, ignorant of
what had happened, came to salute Joram, and perished in
the confusion of the slaughter, and the line of David
narrowly escaped extinction with the house of Omri. 3
Athaliah assumed the regency, broke the tie of vassalage
which bound Judah to Israel, and by a singular irony of
fate, Jerusalem offered an asylum to the last of the children
of Ahab. 3 The treachery of Jehu, in addition to his
inexpiable cruelty, terrified the faithful, even while it served
their ends. Dynastic crimes were common in those days,
but the tragedy of Jezreel eclipsed in horror all others that
had preceded it ; it was at length felt that such avenging
of Jahveh was in His eyes too ruthless, and a century later
the Prophet Hosea saw in the misery of his people the
divine chastisement of the house of Jehu for the blood shed
at his accession. 4
The report of these events, reaching Calah, awoke the
ambition of Shalmaneser. Would Damascus, mistrusting
its usurper, deprived of its northern allies, and ill-treated by
1 2 Kings ix. ; x. 1-12, 18-27.
2 2 Kings x. 12-14. Stade has shown that this account is in direct con
tradiction with its immediate context, and that it belonged to a version of
the events differing in detail from the one which has come down to us.
According to the latter, Jehu must at once have met Jehonadab the son of
Rechab, and have entered Samaria in his company (vers. 15-17) ; this would
have been a poor way of inspiring the priests of Baal with the confidence
necessary for drawing them into the trap. According to 2 Chron. xxii. 8,
the massacre of the princes of Judah preceded the murder of Ahaziah.
3 2 Kings xi. 1 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxii. 10. 4 Hosea i. 4, 5.
VOL. VII. K
130 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the Hebrews, prove itself as invulnerable as in the past ?
At all events, in 842 B.C., Shalmaneser once more crossed
the Euphrates, marched along the Orontes, probably
receiving the homage of Hamath and Arvad by the way.
Kestricted solely to the resources of Damascus, Hazael did
not venture to advance into Ccele-Syria as Ben-hadad had
always done ; he barricaded the denies of Anti-Lebanon,
and, entrenched on Mount Shenir with the flower of his
troops, prepared to await the attack. It proved the most
bloody battle that the Assyrians had up to that period ever
fought. Hazael lost 16,000 foot-soldiers, 470 horsemen,
1121 chariots, and yet succeeded in falling back on
Damascus in good order. Shalmaneser, finding it
impossible to force the city, devastated the surrounding
country, burnt numberless villages and farms, and felled all
the fruit trees in the Hauran up to the margin of the desert.
This district had never, since the foundation of the
kingdom by Rezon a century before, suffered at the hands
of an enemy s army, and its population, enriched as much
by peaceful labour as by the spoil of its successful wars,
offered a prize of incalculable value. On his return march
Shalmaneser raided the Bekaa, entered Phoenicia, and
carved a triumphal stele on one of the rocks of Baalirasi. 1
The Kings of Tyre and Sidon hastened to offer him
1 The site of Baalirasi is left undecided by Assyriologists. The events
which follow enable us to affirm with tolerable certainty that the point on
the coast where Shalmaneser received the tributes of Tyre and Sidon is none
other than the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb : the name Baalirasi, " the master
of the head," would then be applicable to the rocky point which rises to the
south of the river, and on which Egyptian kings had already sculptured their
stelse.
JEHU SENDS PRESENTS TO SHALMANESER 131
numerous gifts, and Jehu, who owed to his presence
temporary immunity from a Syrian invasion, sent his
envoys to greet him, accompanied by offerings of gold and
silver in bars, vessels of gold of various forms, situlse,
salvers, cups, drinking-vessels, tin, sceptres, and wands of
precious woods. Shalmaneser s pride was flattered by this
homage, and he carved on one of his monuments the
JEHU, KINO OF ISRAEL, SENDS PRESENTS TO SHALMANESER. 1
representation of this first official connection of Assyria
with Israel. The chief of the embassage is shown pros
trating himself and kissing the dust before the king, while
the rest advance in single file, some with vessels in their
hands, some carrying sceptres, or with metal bowls
supported on their heads. The prestige of the house of
Omri was still a living influence, or else the Ninevite
scribes were imperfectly informed of the internal changes
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the scenes represented on the
Black Obelisk/
132 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
which had taken place in Israel, for the inscription
accompanying this bas-relief calls Jehu the son of Omri,
and grafts the regicide upon the genealogical tree of his
victims. Shalmaneser s victory had been so dearly bought,
that the following year the Assyrians merely attempted an
expedition for tree-felling in the Amanos (841 B.C.). Their
OF ISHAEL S TIUBUTE TO BHAL3CA9K8EB. 1
next move was to push forward into Kui, in the direction of
the Pyrarnos and Saros (840 B.C.). In the summer of 839
they once more ventured southwards, but this time Hazael
changed his tactics : pitched battles and massed move
ments, in which the fate of a campaign was decided by one
cast of the dice, were now avoided, and ambuscades, guerilla
warfare, and long and tedious sieges became the order of
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the Black
Obelisk.
DEFEAT OP HAZAEL AXD HOMAGE OF JEHU 133
the day. By the time that four towns had been taken,
Shalmaneser s patience was worn out : he drew off his
troops and fell back on Phoenicia, laying Tyre, Sidon,
and Byblos under tribute before returning into Mesopo
tamia. Hazael had shown himself possessed of no less
energy than Ben-hadad ; and Damascus, isolated, had
proved as formidable a foe as Damascus surrounded by its
vassals ; Shalmaneser therefore preferred to leave matters
as they were, and accept the situation. Indeed the results
obtained were of sufficient importance to warrant his feeling
some satisfaction. He had ruthlessly dispelled the dream
of Syrian hegemony which- had buoyed up Ben-hadad, he
had forced Damascus to withdraw the suzerainty it had
exercised in the south, and he had conquered Northern
Syria and the lower basin of the Orontes. Before running
any further risks, he judged it prudent to strengthen his
recently acquired authority over these latter countries, and
to accustom the inhabitants to their new position as subjects
of Nineveh.
He showed considerable wisdom by choosing the tribes
of the Taurus and of the Cappadocian marches as the first
objects of attack. In regions so difficult of access, war
could only be carried on with considerable hardship and
severe loss. The country was seamed by torrents and
densely covered with undergrowth, while the towns and
villages, which clung to the steep sides of the valleys,
had no need of walls to become effective fortresses, for
the houses rose abruptly one above another, and formed
so many redoubts which the enemy would be forced to
attack and take one by one. Few pitched battles could
134 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
be fought in a district of this description ; the Assyrians
wore themselves out in incessant skirmishes and endless
petty sieges, and were barely compensated by the meagre
spoil which such warfare yielded. In 838 B.C. Shalmaneser
swept over the country of Tabal and reduced twenty-four
A MOUNTAIN* VILLAGE. 1
of its princes to a state of subjection; proceeding thence,
he visited the mountains of Turat, 2 celebrated from this
period downwards for their silver mines and quarries of
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Alfred Boissier.
2 The position of the mountains of Turat is indicated by the nature of
their products : " We know of a silver mine at Marash and an iron mine not
worked, and two fine quarries, one of pink and the other of black marble."
Turat, therefore, must be the Marash mountain, the Aghir-Dagh and its
spurs ; hence the two sorts of stone mentioned in the Assyrian text would
be, the one the pink, the other the black marble.
WARS IN CILICIA AND NAMRI 135
valuable marbles. In 837 lie seized the stronghold of
Uetash in Melitene, and laid Tabal under a fresh contribu
tion ; this constituted a sort of advance post for Assyria
in the sight of those warlike and continually fluctuating
races situated between the sources of the Halys and the
desert border of Asia Minor. 1 Secure on this side, he
was about to bring matters to a close in Cilicia, when
the defection of lanzu recalled him to the opposite ex
tremity of the empire. He penetrated into Narnri by the
defiles of Khashmur, 2 made a hasty march through Sik-
hisatakh, Blt-Tamul, Bifc-Shakki, and Bit-Shedi, surprised
the rebels and drove them into the forests ; he then bore
down on Parsua 3 and plundered twenty-seven petty kings
1 A fragment of an anonymous list, discovered by Delitzsch, puts the
expedition against the Tabal in 837 B.C. instead of in 838, and consequently
makes the entire series of ensuing expeditions one year later, up to the revolt
of Assur-dain-pal. This is evidently a mistake of the scribe who compiled
this edition of the Canon, and the chronology of a contemporary monument,
such as the Black Obelisk, ought to obtain until further light can be thrown
on the subject.
2 For the site of Khashmur or Khashmar, cf. supra, p. 35, note 3. The
other localities cannot as yet be identified with any modern site ; we may
conjecture that they were scattered about the basin of the upper Diyalah.
3 Parsua, or with the native termination Parsuash, has been identified
first with Persia and then with Parthia, and Rost still persists in its
identification, if not with the Parthia of classical geographers, at least with
the Parthian people. Schrader has shown that it ought to be sought between
Namri on the south and the Mannai on the north, in one of the valleys of
the Gordysean mountains, and his demonstration has been accepted with a
few modifications of detail by most scholars. I believe it to be possible to
determine its position with still further precision. Parsua on one side lay
on the border of Namri, which comprises the districts to the east of the
Diyalah in the direction of Zohab, and was contiguous to the Medes on the
other side, and also to the Mannai, who occupied the southern regions of Lake
Urumiah ; it also lies close to Bit-Khamban, the principal of the Cosssean
136 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
consecutively; skirting Misi, Ainadai, Araziash, 1 and
Kharkhar, and most of the districts lying on the middle
heights of the table-land of Iran, he at length came up
with lauzu, whom he seized and brought back prisoner to
Assyria, together with his family and his idols. It was
at this juncture, perhaps, that he received from the people
of Muzri the gift of an elephant and some large monkeys,
representations of which he has left us on one of his bas-
reliefs. Elephants were becoming rare, and it was not
now possible to kill them by the hundred, as formerly, in
Syria : this particular animal, therefore, excited the
wonder of the Ninevites, and the possession of it flattered
the vanity of the conqueror. This was, however, an inter
lude of short duration, and the turbulent tribes of the
Taurus recalled him to the west as soon as spring set in.
tribes, as it would appear. I can find only one position on the rnap which
would answer to all these requirements : this is in the main the basin of the
Gave-rud and its small affluents, the Ardelan and the sources of the Kizil-
Uzen, and I shall there place Parsua until further information is forthcoming
on the subject.
1 Amadai is a form of Madai, with a prothetical a, like Agusi or Azala,
by the side of Guzi and Zala. The inscription of Shalmaneser III. thus
gives us the first mention of the classical Medes. Araziash, placed too far
to the east in Sagartene by Fr. Lenormant, has been located further west
wards by Schrader, near the upper course of the Kerkha ; but the documents
of all periods show us that on one side it adjoined Kharkhar, that is the
basin of the Gamas-ab, on the other side Media, that is the country of
Hamadan. It must, therefore, be placed between the two, in the northern
part of the ancient Cambadene in the present Tchamabadan. Kharkhar in
this case would be in the southern part of Cambadene, on the main road
which leads from the gates of the Zagros to Hamadan ; an examination of
the general features of the country leads me to believe that the town of
Kharkhar should occupy the site of Kirmanshahan, or rather of the ancient
city which preceded that town.
LAST CAMPAIGNS OF SHALMANESER III.
137
He laid waste Kui in 836 B.C., destroyed Timur, its
capital, and on his return march revenged himself on
Arame of Agusi, whose spirit was still unbroken by his
former misfortunes. Tanakun and Tarsus fell into his
hands 835 B.C. ; Shalmaneser replaced Kati, the King of
Kui, by his brother Kirn, and made of his dominions a
ELEPHANT AND MONKEYS BKOUGHT AS A TRIBUTE TO NINEVEH BY THE PEOPLE
OF MUZRI. 1
kind of buffer state between his own territory and that of
Paniphylia and Lycaonia. He had now occupied the
throne for a quarter of a century, not a year of which
had elapsed without seeing the monarch gird on his
armour and lead his soldiers in person towards one or
other points of the horizon. He was at length weary of
such perpetual warfare, and advancing age perchance pre
vented him from leading his troops with that dash and
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the Black
Obelisk.
138 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
vigour which are necessary to success ; however this might
be, on his return from Cilicia he laid aside his armour
once for all, and devoted himself to peaceful occupations.
But he did not on that account renounce all attempts
at conquest. Conducting his campaigns by proxy, he
delegated the command of his army to his Tartan Dayan-
assur, and the northern tribes were the first on whom
this general gave proof of his prowess. Urartu had passed
into the hands of another sovereign since its defeat in
845 B.C., and a second Sharduris 1 had taken the place of
the Araine who had ruled at the beginning of Shalma-
neser s reign. It would appear that the accession of this
prince, who was probably young and active, was the
signal for a disturbance among the people of the Upper
Tigris and the Masios a race always impatient of the
yoke, and ready to make common cause with any fresh
enemy of Assyria. An insurrection broke out in Bit-
Zamani and the neighbouring districts. Dayan-assur
quelled it offhand ; then, quitting the basin of the Tigris
by the defiles of Armash, he crossed the Arzania, and
entered Urartu. Sharduris came out to meet him, and
was defeated, if we may give credence to the official record
of the campaign. Even if the account be an authentic
one, the victory was of no advantage to the Assyrians,
for they were obliged to retreat before they had subjugated
1 The name is written Siduri or Seduri in the text of the Obelisk, pro
bably in accordance with some popular pronunciation, in which the r was
but slightly rolled and finally disappeared. The identity of Seduri and Shar
duris, has been adopted by recent historians. Belc u and Lehmann have
shown that this Seduri was not Sharduris, son of Lutipris, but a Sharduris
II., probably the son of Araine.
INSECURITY OF LIFE AND PROPERTY 139
the enemy, and an insurrection among the Patina pre
vented them from returning to the attack in the following
year. With obligations to their foreign master on one
hand and to their own subjects on the other, the princes
of the Syrian states had no easy life. If they failed to
fulfil their duties as vassals, then an Assyrian invasion
would pour in to their country, and sooner or later their
ruin would be assured ; they would have before them the
prospect of death by impaling or under the knife of the
flayer, or, if they escaped this, captivity and exile in a
far-off land. Prudence therefore dictated a scrupulous
fidelity to their suzerain. On the other hand, if they
resigned themselves to their dependent condition, the
people of their towns would chafe at the payment of
tribute, or some ambitious relative would take advantage
of the popular discontent to hatch a plot and foment a
revolution, and the prince thus threatened would escape
from an Assyrian reprisal only to lose his throne or fall
by the blow of an assassin. In circumstances such as
these the people of the Patina murdered their king, Lubarna
II., and proclaimed in his room a certain Surri, who had
no right to the crown, but who doubtless undertook to
liberate them from the foreigner. Dayan-assur defeated
the rebels and blockaded the remains of their army in
Kinalua. They defended themselves at first energetically,
but on the death of Surri from some illness, their courage
failed them and they offered to deliver over the sons of
their chief if their own lives might be spared. Dayan-assur
had the poor wretches impaled, laid the inhabitants under
a heavy contribution, and appointed a certain Sasi, son of
HO ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Uzza, to be their king. The remainder of Syria gave no
further trouble a fortunate circumstance, for the countries
on the Armenian border revolted in 832 B.C., and the
whole year was occupied in establishing order among the
herdsmen of Kirkhi. In 831 B.C., Dayan-assur pushed
forward into Khubushkia, and traversed it from end to
end without encountering any resistance. He next
attacked the Mannai. Their prince, Ualki, quailed before
his onslaught; he deserted his royal city Zirtu, 1 and
took refuge in the mountains. Dayan-assur pursued him
thither in vain, but he was able to collect considerable
booty, and turning in a south-easterly direction, he fought
his way along the base of the Gordyasan mountains till
he reached Parsua, which he laid under tribute. In 830
B.C. it was the turn of Muzazir, which hitherto had escaped
invasion, to receive a visit from the Tartan. Zapparia,
the capital, and fifty-six other towns were given over to
the flames. From thence, Dayan-assur passed into Urartu
proper ; after having plundered it, he fell back on the
southern provinces, collecting by the way the tribute of
Guzan, of the Mannai, of Andiu, 2 and Parsua; he then
pushed on into the heart of Namri, and having razed to
1 The town is elsewhere called Izivtu, and appears to have been
designated in the inscriptions of Van by the name of Sisiri-Khadiris.
2 Andia or Andiu is contiguous to Nairi, to Zikirtu and to Karalla,
which latter borders on Manna ; it bordered on the country of Misa or
Misi, into which it is merged under the name of Misianda in the time of
Sargon. Delattre places Andiu in the country of the classical Matiense,
between the Matisenian mountains and Lake Urumiah. The position of Misu
on the confines of Araziash and Media, somewhere in the neighbourhood of
Talvantu-Dagh, obliges us to place Andiu lower down to the south-east, near
the district of Kurdasir.
TROPHIES OF THE WARS
141
the ground two hundred and fifty of its towns, returned
with his troops to Assyria by the defiles of Shimishi and
through Khalman. This was per
haps the last foreign campaign of
Shalmaneser III. s reign ; it is at all
events the last of which we possess
any history. The record of his ex
ploits ends, as it had begun more
than thirty years previously, with a
victory in Namri.
The aged king had, indeed, well
earned the right to end his allotted
days in peace. Devoted to Calah,
like his predecessor, he had there
accumulated the spoils of his cam
paigns, and had made it the wealthi
est city of his empire. He continued
to occupy the palace of Assur-nazir-
pal, which he had enlarged. Wher
ever he turned within its walls, his
eyes fell upon some trophy of his wars
or panegyric of his virtues, whether
recorded on mural tiles covered
with inscriptions and bas-reliefs, or
celebrated by statues, altars, and
triumphal stelae. The most curious
among all these is a square-based block terminating in
three receding stages, one above the other, like the stump
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the cast in the Louvre. [The original
is in the Brit. Mus. TB.]
BLACK OBELISK OF SIIAL-
MAXESEK III. 1
142 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
of an Egyptian obelisk surmounted by a stepped pyramid.
Five rows of bas-reliefs on it represent scenes most flatter
ing to Assyrian pride; the reception of tribute from
Gilzan, Muzri, the Patina, the Israelitish Jehu, and
Marduk-abal-uzur, King of the land of Sukhi. The latter
knew his suzerain s love of the chase, and he provided him
with animals for his preserves, including lions, and rare
STAG AND LIONS OF THE COUNTRY OF SUK11I. 1
species of deer. The inscription on the monument briefly
relates the events which had occurred between the first and
the thirty-first years of Shalmaneser s reign ; the defeat of
Damascus, of Babylon and Urartu, the conquest of
Northern Syria, of Cilicia, and of the countries bordering
on the Zagros. When the king left Calah for some country
residence in its neighbourhood, similar records and carv
ings would meet his eye. At Imgur-Bel, one of the gates
1 Drawn by Fciucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the Black
Obelisk.
CONDITIONS RIPE FOR REVOLT 143
of the palace was covered with plates of bronze, on which
the skilful artist had embossed and engraved with the
chisel episodes from the campaigns on the Euphrates and
the Tigris, the crossing of mountains and rivers, the
assault and burning of cities, the long lines of captives, the
melee with the enemy and the pursuit of the chariots. All
the cities of Assyria, Nineveh, 1 Arbela, Assur, even to the
more distant towns of Harran 2 and Tushkhan, 3 - -vied with
each other in exhibiting proofs of his zeal for their gods
and his affection for their inhabitants ; but his predilection
for Calah filled them with jealousy, and Assur particularly
could ill brook the growing aversion with which the
Assyrian kings regarded her. It was of no avail that she
continued to be the administrative and religious capital of
the empire, the storehouse of the spoil and annual tribute
of other nations, and was continually embellishing herself
with fresh monuments : a spirit of discontent was daily
increasing, and merely awaited some favourable occasion to
break out into open revolt. Shalmaneser enjoyed the dignity
of limmu for the second time after thirty years, and had
celebrated this jubilee of his inauguration by a solemn
festival in honour of Assur and Eamman. 4 It is possible
1 Nineveh is mentioned as the starting-place of nearly all the first cam
paigns in the inscription on the Monolith ; also in the Balawat inscription,
on the other hand, towards the end of the reign, Calah is given as the
residence of the king on the Black Obelisk.
2 Mention of the buildings of Shalmaneser III. at Harran occurs in an
inscription of Nabonidus.
3 The Monolith discovered at Kurkh is in itself a proof that Shalmaneser
executed works in this town, the Tushkhan of the inscriptions.
4 Any connection established between this thirty-year jubilee and the
144 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
that he may have thought this a favourable moment for
presenting to the people the son whom he had chosen from
among his children to succeed him. At any rate, Assur-
dain-pal, fearing that one of his brothers might be preferred
before him, proclaimed himself king, and nearly the whole
of Assyria gathered
around his standard.
Assur and twenty-
six more of the most
important cities re
volted in his favour
-Nineveh, Imgur-
bel, Sibaniba, Dur-
balat, Arbela, Zaban
in the Chaldsean
marches, Arrapkha
in the valley of the
Upper Zab, and
most of the colonies,
both of ancient and
recent foundation
Amidi on the Tigris,
THE BROXZE-COVERED GATES OF BALAWAT.
mouths of the Kha-
bur and Tul-Abni on the southern slopes of the Masios.
The aged king remained in possession only of Calah
and its immediate environs Nisibis, Harran, Tushkhan,
thirty years festival of Egypt rests on facts which can be so little relied on,
that it must be accepted with considerable reserve.
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch by Pinches.
THE FIRST CAMPAIGNS OF SAMSI-BAMMAN IV. 145
and the most recently subdued provinces on the banks
of the Euphrates and the Orontes. It is probable, how
ever, that the army remained faithful to him, and the
support which these well-tried troops afforded him enabled
the king to act with promptitude. The weight of years
did not permit him to command in person ; he there
fore entrusted the conduct of operations to his son
Samsi-ramman, but he did not live to see the end of the
struggle. It embittered his last days, and was not termi
nated till 822 B.C., at which date Shalmaneserhad been dead
two years. This prolonged crisis had shaken the kingdom
to its foundations ; the Syrians, the Medes, the Babylonians,
and the peoples of the Armenian and Aramaean marches
were rent from it, and though Samsi-ramman IV. waged
continuous warfare during the twelve years that he governed,
he could only partially succeed in regaining the territory
which had been thus lost. 1 His first three campaigns were
directed against the north-eastern and eastern provinces.
He began by attempting to collect the tribute from Nairi,
the payment of which had been suspended since the out
break of the revolution, and he re-established the dominion
of Assyria from the district of Paddir to the township of
Kar-Shulmanasharid, which his father had founded at the
fords of the Euphrates opposite to Carchemish (821 B.C.).
In the following campaign he did not personally take part,
but the Rabshakeh Mutarriz-assur pillaged the shores of
All that we know of the reign of Samsi-ramman IV. comes from an
inscription in archaic characters containing the account of four campaigns,
without giving the years of each reign or the limmu, and historians have
classified them in different ways.
VOL. VII. L
146 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Lake Urumiah, and then made Ms way towards Urartu,
where he destroyed three hundred towns (820), The third
expedition was directed against Misi and Gizilbunda beyond
the Upper Zab and Mount Zilar. 1 The inhabitants of Misi
entrenched themselves on a wooded ridge commanded by
three peaks, but were defeated in spite of the advantages
which their position secured for them ; 2 the people of
Gizilbunda were not more fortunate than their neighbours,
and six thousand of them perished at the assault of Urash,
their capital. 3 Mutarriz-assur at once turned upon the
1 Mount Zilar is beyond the Upper Zab, on one of the roads which lead
to the basin of Lake Urumiah, probably in Khubushkia. There are two of
these roads that which passes over the neck of Kelishin, and the other
which runs through the gorges of Alan ; "with the exception of these two
points, the mountain chain is absolutely impassable." According to the
general direction of the campaign, it appears to me probable that the king
crossed by the passes of Alan ; Mount Zilar would therefore be the group of
chains which cover the district of Pishder, and across which the Lesser Zab
passes before descending to the plain.
The country of Misi adjoined Gizilbunda, Media, Araziash, and An cliu.
All these circumstances incline us to place it in the south-eastern part of
Kurdistan of Sihmeh, in the upper valley of Kisil-Uzen. The ridge, over
looked by three peaks, on which the inhabitants took refuge, cannot be
looked for on the west, where there are few important heights : I should
rather identify it with the part of the Gordysean mountains which bounds
the basin of the Kisil-Uzen on the west, and which contains three peaks of
12,000 feet the Tchehel-tchechma, the Derbend, and the Nau-Kun.
3 The name of the country has been read Giratbunda, Ginunbunda,
Girubbunda ; a variant, to which no objections can be made, has furnished
Gizilbunda. It was contiguous on one side to the Medes, and on the other
to the Mannai, which obliges us to place it in Kurdistan of Gerrus, on the
Kizil-Uzen. It may be asked if the word Kizil which occurs several times
in the topographical nomenclature of these regions is not a relic of the name
in question, and if Gizil-bunda is not a compound of the same class as Kizil-
uzen, Kizil-gatchi, Kizil-alan, Kizil-lok, whether it be that part of the
population spoke a language analogous to the dialects now in use in these
BABYLON IS BESIEGED 147
Medes, vanquished them, and drove them at the point of
the sword into their remote valleys, returning to the district
of Araziash, which he laid waste. A score of chiefs with
barbarous names, alarmed by this example, hastened to
prostrate themselves at his feet, and submitted to the
tribute which he imposed on them. Assyria thus regained
in these regions the ascendency which the victories of
Shalmaneser III. in their time had won for her.
Babylon, which had endured the suzerainty of its rival
for a quarter of a century, seems to have taken advantage
of the events occurring in Assyria to throw off the yoke, by
espousing the cause of Assur-dain-pal. Samsi-rainman,
therefore, as soon as he was free to turn his attention from
Media (818), directed his forces against Babylonia. Metur-
nafc, as usual, was the first city attacked ; it capitulated at
once, and its inhabitants were exiled to Assyria. Kami to
the south of the Turnat, and Dibina on Mount Yalman,
suffered the same fate, but Gananate held out for a time ;
its garrison, however, although reinforced by troops from
the surrounding country, was utterly routed before its
walls, and the survivors, who fled for refuge to the citadel
in the centre of the town, were soon dislodged. The
Babylonians, who had apparently been taken by surprise
at the first attack, at length made preparations to resist
the invaders. The Prince of Dur-papsukal, who owned
allegiance to Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, King of Babylon, had
disposed his troops so as to guard the fords of the Tigris, in
order to prevent the enemy from reaching his capital. But
districts, or that the ancient word has been preserved by later conquerors
and assimilated to some well-known word in their own
148 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Samsi-ramman dispersed this advanced force, killing thirteen
thousand, besides taking three thousand prisoners, and
finally reduced Dur-papsukal to
ashes. The respite thus obtained
gave Marduk - balatsu - ikbi suf
ficient time to collect the main
body of his troops : the army was
recruited from Kalda and Ela-
mites, soldiers from Namri, and
Aramaean contingents, and the
united force awaited the enemy
behind the ruins of Dur-papsukal,
along the banks of the Daban
canal. Five thousand footmen,
two hundred horsemen, one
hundred chariots, besides the
king s tent and all his stores, fell
into the hands of the Assyrians.
The victory was complete ;
Babylon, Ruta, and Borsippa
capitulated one after the other,
MOXOL1TII OF SAMSI-BAMHAN IV. 1
and the invaders penetrated as
far as the land of the Kalda, and actually reached the
Persian Gulf. Samsi-ramman offered sacrifices to the gods,
as his father had done before him, and concluded a treaty
with Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, the terms of which included
rectification of boundaries, payment of a subsidy, and the
other clauses usual in such circumstances ; the peace was
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell. The original
is in the British Museum.
RAMMAN-NIRARI III. 149
probably ratified by a matrimonial alliance, concluded
between the Babylonian princess Sammuramat and
Bamrnan-nirari, son of the conqueror. In this manner the
hegemony of Assyria over Karduniash was established even
more firmly than before the insurrection ; but all available
resources had been utilised in the effort necessary to secure
it. Samsi-ramman had no leisure to reconquer Syria or
Asia Minor, and the Euphrates remained the western
frontier of his kingdom, as it had been in the early days of
Shalmaneser III. The peace with Babylon, moreover, did
not last long; Bau-akhiddin, who had succeeded Marduk-
balatsu-ikbi, refused to observe the terms of the treaty, and
hostilities again broke out on the Turnat and the Tigris, as
they had done six years previously. This war was pro
longed from 813 to 812 B.C., and was still proceeding when
Samsi-ramman died. His son Bamman-nirari III. quickly
brought it to a successful issue. He carried Bau-akhiddin
captive to Assyria, with his family and the nobles of his
court, and placed on the vacant throne one of his own
partisans, while he celebrated festivals in honour of his
own supremacy at Babylon, Kuta, and Borsippa. Kardu
niash made no attempt to rebel against Assyria during the
next half- century. Bamman-nirari proved himself an
energetic and capable sovereign, and the thirty years of his
reign were by no means inglorious. We learn from the
eponym lists what he accomplished during that time, and
against which countries he waged war ; but we have not
yet recovered any inscription to enable us to fill in this
outline, and put together a detailed account of his reign.
His first expeditions were directed against Media (810),
150 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Gozan (809), and the Manual (808-807); lie then crossed
the Euphrates, and in four successive years conducted as
many vigorous campaigns against Arpad (806), Khazazu
(805), the town of Baali (804), and the cities of the
Phoenician sea-board (803). The plague interfering with
his advance in the latter direction, he again turned his
attention eastward and attacked Khubushkia in 802, 792,
and 784 ; Media in 801-800, 794-793, and 790-787 ; Lushia
in 799 ; Narnri in 798 ; Dili in 796-795 and 785 ; Itua in
791, 783-782 ; Kishki in 785. This bare enumeration
conjures up a vision of an enterprising and victorious
monarch of the type of Assur-nazir-pal or Shalmaneser III.,
one who perhaps succeeded even where his redoubtable
ancestors had failed. The panoramic survey of his empire,
as unfolded to us in one of his inscriptions, includes the
mountain ranges of Illipi as far as Mount Sihma,
Kharkhar, Araziash, Misu, Media, the whole of Gizilbunda,
Man, Parsua, Allabria, Abdadana, the extensive territory of
Nairi, far-off Andiu, and, westwards beyond the Euphrates,
the Khati, the entire country of the Amorites, Tyre, Sidon,
Israel, Edorn, and the Philistines. Never before had the
Assyrian empire extended so far east in the direction of the
centre of the Iranian tableland, nor so far to the south-west
towards the frontiers of Egypt. 1
1 Allabria or Allabur is on the borders of Parsua and of Karalla, which
allows us to locate it in the basins of the Kerkhorah and the Saruk,
tributaries of the Jagatu, which flow into Lake Urumiah. Abdadana,
which borders on Allabria, and was, according to Ramman-nirari, at the
extreme end of Nairi, was a little further to the east or north-east ; if I am
not mistaken, it corresponds pretty nearly to Uriad, on the banks of the
Kizil-Uzen.
JEHU SUFFERS LOSS ON ALL SIDES 151
In two only of these regions, namely, Syria and
Armenia, do native documents add any information to the
meagre summary contained in the Annals, and give us
glimpses of contemporary rulers. The retreat of Shal-
maneser, after his partial success in 839, had practically
left the ancient allies of Ben-hadad II. at the mercy of
Hazael, the new King of Damascus, but he did not
apparently attempt to assert his supremacy over the whole
of Coele- Syria, and before long several of its cities acquired
considerable importance, first Mansuate, and then
Hadrach, 1 both of which, casting Hainath into the shade,
succeeded in holding their own against Hazael and his
successors. He renewed hostilities, however, against the
Hebrews, and did not relax his efforts till he had
thoroughly brought them into subjection. Jehu suffered
loss on all his frontiers, " from Jordan eastward, all the
land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Eeubenites, and the
Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of Arnon,
even Gilead and Bashan," 2 Israel became thus once more
entirely dependent on Damascus, but the sister kingdom of
1 Mansuati successfully resisted Ramman-nirari in 797 B.C., but
he probably caused its ruin, for after this only expeditions against Hadrach
are mentioned. Mansuati was in the basin of the Orontes, and the manner
in which the Assyrian texts mention it in connection with Zimyra seems to
show that it commanded the opening in the Lebanon range between
Ccele-Syria and Phoenicia. The site of Khatarika, the Hadrach of Zech.
ix. 1, is not yet precisely determined ; but it must, as well as Mansuati,
have been in the neighbourhood of Hamath, perhaps between Hamath and
Damascus. It appears for the first time in 772.
2 2 Kings x. 32, 33. Even if verse 33 is a later addition, it gives a
correct idea of the situation, except as regards Bashan, which had been lost
to Israel for some time already.
152 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Judali still escaped its yoke through the energy of her
rulers. Athaliah reigned seven years, not ingloriously ;
but she belonged to the house of Ahab, and the adherents
of the prophets, whose party had planned Jehu s revolution,
could no longer witness with equanimity one of the
accursed race thus prospering and ostentatiously practising
the rites of Baal-worship within sight of the great temple
of Jahveh. On seizing the throne, Athaliah had sought
out and put to death all the members of the house of
David who had any claim to the succession ; but Jeho-
sheba, half-sister of Ahaziah, had with difficulty succeeded
in rescuing Joash, one of the king s sons. Her husband
was the high priest Jehoiada, and he secreted his nephew
for six years in the precincts of the temple ; at the end of
that time, he won over the captains of the royal guard,
bribed a section of the troops, and caused them to swear
fealty to the child as their legitimate sovereign. Athaliah,
hastening to discover the cause of the uproar, was
assassinated. Mattan, chief priest of Baal, shared her
fate ; and Jehoiada at once restored to Jahveh the pre
eminence which the gods of the alien had for a time
usurped l (837). At first his influence over his pupil was
supreme, but before long the memory of his services faded
away, and the king sought only how to rid himself of a
tutelage which had grown irksome. The temple had
suffered during the late wars, and repairs were much
needed. Joash ordained that for the future all moneys put
1 2 Kings xi. ; cf. 2 Chron. xxii. 10-12, and xxiii. The author of
2 Chron. xxii. 11 alone states that Jehosheba was the wife of the high
priest.
ISRAEL AND JUDAH VASSALS OP HAZAEL 153
into the sacred treasury which of right belonged to the
king should be placed unreservedly at the disposal of the
priests on condition that they should apply them to the
maintenance of the services and fabric of the temple : the
priests accepted the gift, but failed in the faithful observ
ance of the conditions, so that in 814 B.C. the king
was obliged to take stringent measures to compel them
to repair the breaches in the sanctuary walls : l he there
fore withdrew the privilege which they had abused, and
henceforth undertook the administration of the Temple
Fund in person. The beginning of the new order of things
was not very successful. Jehu had died in 815, after a
disastrous reign, and both he and his son Jehoahaz had
been obliged to acknowledge the supremacy of Hazael : not
only was he in the position of an inferior vassal, but, in
order to preclude any idea of a revolt, he was forbidden to
maintain a greater army than the small force necessary for
purposes of defence, namely, ten thousand foot-soldiers,
fifty horsemen, and ten chariots. 2 The power of Israel
had so declined that Hazael was allowed to march through
its territory unhindered on his way to wage war in the
country of the Philistines ; which he did, doubtless, in order
1 2 Kings xii. 4-16 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 1-14. The beginning of the
narrative is lost, and the whole has probably been modified to make it agree
with 2 Kings xxii. 3-7.
2 2 Kings xiii. 1-7. It may be noticed that the number of foot-soldiers
given in the Bible is identical with that which the Assyrian texts mention
as Ahab s contingent at the battle of Qarqar, viz. 10,000 ; the number of
the chariots is very different in the two cases. Kuenen and other critics
would like to assign to the reign of Jehoahaz the siege of Samaria by
the Syrians, which the actual text of the Book of the Kings attributes to
the reign of Joram.
154 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
to get possession of the main route of Egyptian commerce.
The Syrians destroyed Gath, 1 reduced Pentapolis to subjec
tion, enforced tribute from Edorn, and then marched
against Jerusalem. Joash took from the treasury of
Jahveh the reserve funds which his ancestors, Jehoshaphat,
Joram, and Ahaziah, had accumulated, and sent them to
the invader, 2 together with all the gold which was found
in the king s house. From this time forward Judah
became, like Israel, Edom, the Philistines and Ammonites,
a mere vassal of Hazael ; with the possible exception of
Moab, all the peoples of Southern Syria were now subject
to Damascus, and formed a league as strong as that which
had successfully resisted the power of Shalmaneser.
Ramman-nirari, therefore, did not venture to attack Syria
during the lifetime of Hazael ; but a change of sovereign
is always a critical moment in the history of an Eastern
empire, and he took advantage of the confusion caused by
the death of the aged king to attack his successor Mail
(803 B.C.). Mari essayed the tactics which his father had
found so successful ; he avoided a pitched battle, and shut
himself up in Damascus. But he was soon closely block
aded, and forced to submit to terms ; Ramman-nirari
demanded as the price of withdrawal, 23,000 talents of
1 The text of 2 Kings xii. 17 merely says that Hazael took Gath. Gath
is not named by Amos among the cities of the Philistines (Amos. i. 6-8), but
it is one of the towns cited by that prophet as examples to Israel of the
wrath of Jahveh (vi. 2). It is probable, therefore, that it was already
destroyed in his time.
2 2 Kings xii. 17, 18 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 22-24, where the expedition
of Hazael is represented as a punishment for the murder of Zechariah, son
of Jehoiada.
THE GROWTH AND POWER OF URARTU 155
silver, 20 talents of gold, 3000 of copper, 5000 of iron,
besides embroidered and dyed stuffs, an ivory couch ; and a
litter inlaid with ivory, in all a considerable part of the
treasures amassed at the expense of the Hebrews and their
neighbours. It is doubtful whether Eammau-nirari pushed
further south, and penetrated in person as far as the
deserts of Arabia Petea a suggestion which the mention
of the Philistines and Edomites among the list of his
tributary states might induce us to accept. Probably it
was not the case, and he really went no further than
Damascus. But the submission of that city included, in
theory at least, the submission of all states subject to her
sway, and these dependencies may have sent some presents
to testify their desire to conciliate his favour ; their names
appear in the inscriptions in order to swell the number of
direct or indirect vassals of the empire, since they were
subject to a state which had been effectually conquered.
Ramman-nirari did not meet with such good fortune
in the North ; not only did he fail to obtain the brilliant
successes which elsewhere attended his arms, but he
ended by sustaining considerable reverses. The Ninevite
historians reckoned the two expeditions of 808 and 807 B.C.
against the Mannai as victories, doubtless because the
king returned with a train of prisoners and loaded with
spoil ; but the Vannic inscriptions reveal that Urartu,
which had been rising into prominence during the reign
of Shalmaneser, had now grown still more powerful, and
had begun to reconquer those provinces on the Tigris
and Euphrates of which the Assyrians thought themselves
the undoubted lords. Sharduris II. had been succeeded,
156 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
about 828, by his son Ishpuinis, who had perhaps measured
his strength against Samsi-rarnman IV. 1 Ishpuinis appears
to have conquered and reduced to the condition of a
province the neighbouring principality of Biainas, which
up to that time had been governed by a semi-independent
dynasty ; at all events, he trans
ferred thence his seat of govern
ment, and made Dhuspas his
favourite residence. To
wards the end of his reign
he associated with him
on the throne his son
Menuas, and made him
commander - in - chief of
the army. Menuas proved
a bold and successful
general, and in a few years
had doubled the extent of
his dominions. He first
delivered from the As-
TKIUMl HAL STELE OF MEXUA8 AT KEUSHK."
g yrian
on his father s account, the tribes on the borders of Lake
Urumiah, Muzazir, Gilzan, and Kirruri ; then, crossing
the G-ordysean mountains, he burnt the towns in the
valley of the Upper Zab, which bore the uncouth names
of Terais, Ardis, Khanalis, Bikuras, Khatqanas, Inuas,
and Nibur, laid waste the more fertile part of Khubushkia,
1 Ishpuinis is probably the Ushpina mentioned by Samsi-ramman among
the conquered kings of Nairi.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by J. de Morgan.
THE CONQUESTS OF MENUAS 157
and carved triumphal stelae in the Assyrian and Yannic
scripts upon the rocks in the pass of Rowandiz. It was
probably to recover this territory that Bamman-nirari
waged war three times in Khubnshkia, in 802, 792, and
785, in a district which had formerly been ruled by a
prefect from Nineveh, but had now fallen into the hands
of the enemy. 1 Everywhere along the frontier, from the
Lower Zab to the Euphrates, Menuas overpowered and
drove back the Assyrian outposts. He took from them
Aldus and Erinuis on the southern shores of Lake Van,
compelled Dayaini to abandon its allegiance, and forced
its king, Udhupursis, to surrender his treasure and his
chariots ; then gradually descending the valley of the
Arzania, he crushed Seseti, KulmS, and Ekarzu. In one
year he pillaged the Mannai in the east, and attacked
the Khati in the west, seizing their fortresses of Surisilis,
Tarkhigamas, and Sarduras ; in the province of Alzu he
left 2113 soldiers dead on the field after one engagement ;
Gupas yielded to his sway, followed by the towns of
Khuzanas and Puteria, whereupon he even crossed the
Euphrates and levied tribute from Melitene. But the
struggle against Assyria absorbed only a portion of his
energy ; we do not know what he accomplished in the
east, in the plains sloping towards the Caspian Sea, but
several monuments, discovered near Armavir and Erzerum,
1 It is probable that the stele of Kelishin, belonging to the joint reign
of Ishpuinis and Menuas, was intended to commemorate the events which
led Ramman-nirari to undertake his first expedition ; the conquest by
Menuas will fall then in 804 or 803 B.C. The inscription of Meher-Kapussi
contains the names of the divinities belonging to several conquered towns,
and may have been engraved on the return from this war.
158 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
testify that he pushed his arms a considerable distance
towards the north and north-west. 1 He obliged Etius
to acknowledge his supremacy, sending a colony to its
capital, Lununis, whose name he changed to Menua-
lietzilinis. 2 Towards the end of his reign he partly
subjugated the Mannai, planting colonies throughout their
territory to strengthen his hold on the country. By these
campaigns he had formed a kingdom, which, stretching
from the south side of the Araxes to the upper reaches of
the Zab and the Tigris, was quite equal to Assyria in size,
and probably surpassed it in density of population, for it
contained no barren steppes such as stretched across
Mesopotamia, affording support merely to a few wretched
Bedawin. As their dominions increased, the sovereigns
of Biainas began to consider themselves on an equality
with the kings of Nineveh, and endeavoured still more to
imitate them in the luxury and display of their domestic
life, as well as in the energy of their actions and the
continuity of their victories. They engraved everywhere
on the rocks triumphal inscriptions, destined to show to
posterity their own exploits and the splendour of their
gods. Having made this concession to their vanity, they
took effective measures to assure possession of their
1 The inscription of Erzerum, discovered by F. de Saulcy and published
by him, shows that Menuas was in possession of the district in which this
town is situated, and that he rebuilt a palace there.
Inscriptions of Yazli-tash and Zolakert. It follows from these texts
that the country of Etius is the district of Armavir, and Lununis is the
ancient name of this city. The new name by which Menuas replaced
the name Lununis signifies the abode of the people of Menuas ; like many
names arising from special circumstances, it naturally passed away with the
rule of the people who had imposed it.
THE FAVOURITE RESIDENCE OF MENUAS 159
conquests. They selected in the various provinces sites
difficult of access, commanding some defile in the
mountains, or ford over a river, or at the junction of two
roads, or the approach to a plain; on such spots they
would build a fortress or a town, or, finding a citadel already
existing, they would repair it and remodel its fortifications
so as to render it impregnable. At Kalajik, Ashrut-Darga,
and the older Mukhrapert may still be seen the ruins of
ramparts built by Ishpuinis. Menuas finished the buildings
his father had begun, erected others in all the districts
where he sojourned, in time of peace or war, at Shushanz,
Sirka, 1 Anzaff, Arzwapert, Geuzak, Zolakert, Tashtepe, and
in the country of the Mannai, and it is possible that the
fortified village of Melasgerd still bears his name. 2 His
wars furnished him with the men and materials necessary
for the rapid completion of these works, while the statues,
valuable articles of furniture, and costly fabrics, vessels of
silver, gold, and copper carried off from Assyrian or Asiatic
cities, provided him with surroundings as luxurious as those
enjoyed by the kings of Nineveh. His favourite residence
was amid the valleys and hills of the south-western shore
of Lake Van, the sea of the rising sun. His father,
Ishpuinis, had already done much to embellish the site
of Dhuspas, or Khaldinas as it was called, from the god
1 The name of the ancient place corresponding to the modern village of
Sirka was probably Artsunis or Artsuyunis, according to the Vannic
inscriptions.
2 A more correct form than Melas-gerd is Manas-gert, the city of Manas,
where Manas would represent Menuas : one of the inscriptions of Aghtamar
speaks of a certain Menuakhinas, city of Menuas, which may be a primitive
version of the same name.
160 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
Khaldis ; he had surrounded it with strong walls, and
within them had laid the foundations of a magnificent
palace. Menuas carried on the work, brought water to
the cisterns by subterranean aqueducts, planted gardens,
and turned the whole place into an impregnable fortress,
THE GARDENS AND HILL OF DHUSPAS OR VAN. 1
where a small but faithful garrison could defy a large army
for several years. Dhuspas, thus completed, formed the
capital and defence of the kingdom during the succeeding
century.
Menuas was gathered to his fathers shortly before
the death of Ramman-nirari, perhaps in 784 B.C. 2 He was
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
This date seems to agree with the text of the Ann ah of Argistis, as far
as we are at present acquainted with them ; Miiller has shown, in fact,
ARGISTIS I. 161
engaged up to the last in a quarrel with the princes who
occupied the mountainous country to the north of the
Araxes, and his son Argistis spent the first few years of
his reign in completing his conquests in this region. 1 He
crushed with ease an attempted revolt in Dayaini, and
then invaded Etius, systematically devastating it, its king,
Uduris, being powerless to prevent his ravages. All the
principal towns succumbed one after another before the
vigour of his assault, and, from the numbers killed and
taken prisoners, we may surmise the importance of his
victories in these barbarous districts, to which belonged
the names of Seriazis, Silius, Zabakhas, Zirimutaras,
Babanis, and Urmias, 2 though we cannot definitely locate
the places indicated. On a single occasion, the assault
on Ureyus, for instance, Argistis took prisoners 19,255
children, 10,140 men fit to bear arms, 23,280 women, and
the survivors of a garrison which numbered 12,675 soldiers
at the opening of the siege, besides 1104 horses, 35,016
that they contain the account of fourteen campaigns, probably the first
fourteen of the reign of Argistis, and he has recognised, in accordance with
the observations of Stanislas Guyard, the formula which separates the
campaigns one from another. There are two campaigns against the peoples
of the Upper Euphrates mentioned before the campaigns against Assyria,
and as these latter follow continuously after 781, it is probable that the
former must be placed in 783-782, which would give 783 or 784 for the
year of his accession.
1 The Annals of Argistis are inscribed on the face of the rock which
crowns the citadel of Van. The inscription contains (as stated in note
above) the history of the first fourteen yearly campaigns of Argistis.
2 The site of these places is still undetermined. Seriazis and Silius
(or Tarius) lay to the north-east of Dayaini, and Urmias, Urme, recalls the
modern name of Lake Urumiah, but was probably situated on the left bank
of the Araxes.
VOL. VII. M
162 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
cattle, and more than 10,000 sheep. Two expeditions
into the heart of the country, conducted between 784 and
782 B.C., had greatly advanced the work of conquest,
when the accession of a new sovereign in Assyria made
Argistis decide to risk a change of front and to concentrate
the main part of his forces on the southern boundary of
his empire. Ramman-nirari, after his last contest in
Khubushkia in 784, had fought two consecutive campaigns
against the Aramaean tribes of Itua, near the frontiers
of Babylon, and he was still in conflict with them when
he died in 782 B.C. His son, Shalmaneser IV., may have
wished to signalise the commencement of his reign by
delivering from the power of Urartu the provinces which
the kings of that country had wrested from his ancestors ;
or, perhaps, Argistis thought that a change of ruler offered
him an excellent opportunity for renewing the struggle
at the point where Menuas had left it, and for conquering
yet more of the territory which still remained to his
rival. Whatever the cause, the Assyrian annals show
us the two adversaries ranged against each other, in a
struggle which lasted from 781 to 778 B.C. Argistis had
certainly the upper hand, and though his advance was
not rapid, it was never completely checked. The first
engagement took place at Nirbu, near the sources of the
Supnat and the Tigris : Nirbu capitulated, and the enemy
pitilessly ravaged the Hittite states, which were subject
to Assyria, penetrating as far as the heart of Melitene
(781). The next year the armies encountered each other
nearer to Nineveh, in the basin of the Bitlis-tchai, at
Khakhias ; and, in 779, Argistis expressly thanks his
THE WARS OF SHALMANESER IV. 103
gods, the Khaldises, for having graciously bestowed upon
him as a gift the armies and cities of Assur. The scene
of the war had shifted, and the contest was now carried
on in the countries bordering on Lake Urumiah, Bustus
and Parsua. The natives gained nothing by the change
of invader, and were as hardly used by the King of Urartu
as they had been by Shalmaneser III. or by Samsiramman :
as was invariably the case, their towns were given over
to the flames, their fields ravaged, their cattle and their
families carried into captivity. Their resistance, however,
was so determined that a second campaign was required
to complete the conquest : and this time the Assyrians
suffered a serious defeat at Surisidas (778), and a year at
least was needed for their recovery from the disaster.
During this respite, Argistis hastened to complete the
pacification of Bustus, Parsua, and the small portion of
Man which had not been reduced to subjection by Menuas.
When the Assyrians returned to the conflict, he defeated
them again (776), and while they withdrew to the Amanus,
where a rebellion had broken out (775), he reduced one by
one the small states which clustered round the eastern and
southern shores of Lake Urumiah. He was conducting a
campaign in Namri, when Shalmaneser IV. made a last
effort to check his advance ; but he was again victorious
(774), and from henceforth these troubled regions, in which
Nineveh had so persistently endeavoured for more than
a century to establish her own supremacy, became part
of the empire of Urartu. Argistis s hold of them proved,
however, to be a precarious and uncertain one, and before
long the same difficulties assailed him which had restricted
164 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
the power of his rivals. He was forced to return again
and again to these districts, destroying fortresses and
pursuing the inhabitants over plain and mountain : in
UKAKTIAN STELE ON THE ROCKS OF AK-KEU^UU. 1
773 we find him in Urmes, the territory of Bikhuras, and
Bam, in the very heart of Namri; in 772, in Dhuaras,
and Gurqus, among the Mannai, and at the city of Uikhis,
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M, Ximenes.
ARGISTIS AND HIS WARS 165
in Bustus. Meanwhile, to the north of the Araxes, several
chiefs had taken advantage of his being thus engaged in
warfare in distant regions, to hreak the very feeble bond
which held them vassals to Urartu. Etius was the
fountain-head and main support of the rebellion ; the
rugged mountain range in its rear provided its chiefs with
secure retreats among its woods and lakes and valleys,
through which flowed rapid torrents. Argistis inflicted
a final defeat on the Mannai in 771, and then turned his
forces against Etius. He took by storm the citadel of
Ardinis which defended the entrance to the country,
ravaged Ishqigulus, 1 and seized Amegu, the capital of
Uidharus : our knowledge of his wars comes to an end
in the following year with an expedition into the land
of Tarius. The monuments do not tell us what he accom
plished on the borders of Asia Minor; he certainly won
some considerable advantages there, and the influence
which Assyria had exercised over states scattered to the
north of the Taurus, such as Melitene, and possibly Tabal
and Kummukh, which had formed the original nucleus
of the Hittite empire, must have now passed into his
hands. The form of Argistis looms before us as that
of a great conqueror, worthy to bear comparison with the
most indefatigable and triumphant of the Pharaohs of
Egypt or the lords of ChaldaBa. The inscriptions which
are constantly being discovered within the limits of his
kingdom prove that, following the example of all Oriental
1 Sayce shows that Ishqigulus was the district of Alexandropolis, to the
east of Kars ; its capital, Irdanius, is very probably either the existing walled
village of Kalinsha or the neighbouring ruin of Ajuk-kaleh, on the Arpa-tchai.
166 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
sovereigns, lie delighted as much in building as in battle :
perhaps we shall some day recover a sufficient number
of records to enable us to restore to their rightful place
in history this great king, and the people whose power
he developed more than any other sovereign.
Assyria had thus lost all her possessions in the northern
and eastern parts of her empire ; turning to the west, how
much still remained faithful to her ? After the expedition
of 775 B.C. to the land of Cedars, two consecutive campaigns
are mentioned against Damascus (773) and Hadrach (772) ;
it was during this latter expedition, or immediately after it,
that Shalmaneser IV. died. Northern Syria seems to have
been disturbed by revolutions which seriously altered the
balance of power within her borders. The ancient states,
whose growth had been arrested by the deadly blows
inflicted on them in the ninth century by Assur-nazir-pal
and Shalmaneser III., had become reduced to the condition
of second-rate powers, and their dominions had been split
up. The Patina was divided into four small states the
Patina proper, Unki, laudi, and Samalla, the latter falling
under the rule of an Aramaean family ; * perhaps the
accession of Qaral, the founder of this dynasty, had been
accompanied by convulsions, which might explain the
presence of Shalmaneser IV. in the Amanos in 775. All
these principalities, whether of ancient or recent standing,
ranged themselves under one of two kingdoms either
Hadrach or Arpad, whose names henceforth during the
1 The inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III. mention Unku, laudi, Samalla,
and the Patina, in the districts where the texts of Assur-nazir-pal and
Shalmaneser III. only know of the Patina.
RECOIL OP ASSYRIAN POWER IN SYRIA 167
following half-century appear in the front rank whenever a
coalition is formed against Assyria. Carchemish, whose
independence was still respected by the fortresses erected
in its neighbourhood, could make no move without exposing
itself to an immediate catastrophe : Arpad, occupying a
prominent position a little in front of the Afrin, on the
main route leading to the Orontes, had assumed the role
which Carchemish was no longer in a position to fill.
Agusi became the principal centre of resistance ; all battles
were fought under the walls of its fortresses, and its fall
involved the submission of all the country between the
Euphrates and the sea, as in former times had been the
case with Kinalua and Khazazu. 1 Similar to the ascendency
of Arpad over the plateau of Aleppo was that of Hadrach in
the valley of the Orontes. This city had taken the position
formerly occupied by Hamath, which was now possibly one
of its dependencies ; it owed no allegiance to Damascus,
and rallied around it all the tribes of Ccele-Syria, whose
assistance Hadadezer, but a short while before, had claimed
in his war with the foreigner. Neither Arpad, Hadrach,
nor Damascus ever neglected to send the customary
presents to any sovereign who had the temerity to cross
the Euphrates and advance into their neighbourhood, but
the necessity for this act of .homage became more and more
infrequent. Daring his reign of eighteen years Assurd^n
III., son and successor of Shalmaneser IV., appeared only
three times beneath their walls at Hadrach in 766 and
That Arpad was in Agusi is proved, among other places, by the
inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III., which show us from 743 to 741 the king
at war with Matilu of Agusi and his suzerain Sharduris III. of Urartu.
168 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
755, at Arpad in 750, a few months only before his death.
Assyria was gradually becoming involved in difficulties, and
the means necessary to the preservation of its empire were
less available than formerly. Assurdan had frankly
renounced all idea of attacking Urartu, but he had at least
endeavoured to defend himself against his enemies on the
southern and eastern frontiers; he had led his armies
against Gananate (771,767), against Itua (769), and against
the Medes (766), before risking an attack on Hadrach (765),
but more than this he had not attempted. On two
occasions in eight years (768, 764) he had preferred to
abstain from offensive action, and had remained inactive in
his own country. Assyria found herself in one of those
crises of exhaustion which periodically laid her low after
each outbreak of ambitious enterprise ; she might well be
compared to a man worn out by fatigue and loss of blood,
who becomes breathless and needs repose as soon as he
attempts the least exertion. Before long, too, the scourges
of disease and civil strife combined with exhaustion in
hastening her ruin. The plague had broken out in the very
year of the last expedition against Hadrach (765), perhaps
under the walls of that city. An eclipse of the sun
occurred in 763, in the month of Sivan, and this harbinger
of woe was the signal for an outbreak of revolt in the city
of Assur. 1 From Assur the movement spread to Arrapkha,
and wrought havoc there from 761 to 760 ; it then passed
on to Gozan, where it was not finally extinguished till 758.
The last remains of Assyrian authority in Syria vanished
1 The ideas which Orientals held on the subject of comets renders the
connection between the two events very likely, if not certain,
THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA
169
during this period : Assurdan, after two years respite,
endeavoured to re-establish it, and attacked successively
Hadrach (755) and Arpad (754). This was his last exploit.
His son Assur-nirari III. spent his short reign of eight
years in helpless inaction ; he lost Syria, he carried on
hostilities in Namri from 749 to 748 whether against the
Aramaeans or Urartians is uncertain then relapsed into
inactivity, and a popular sedition drove him finally from
Calah in 746. He died some months later, without having
repressed the revolt ; none of his sons succeeded him, and
the dynasty, having fallen into disrepute through the
misfortunes of its last kings, thus came to an end ; for, on
the 12th of lyyar, 742 B.C., a usurper, perhaps, the leader of
the revolt at Calah, proclaimed himself king under the
name of Tiglath-pileser. 1 The second Assyrian empire had
lasted rather less than a century and a half, from Tukulti-
ninip II. to Assur-nirari III. 2
1 Many historians have thought that Tiglath-pileser III. was of
Babylonian origin ; most of them, however, rightly considers that he was
an Assyrian. The identity of Tiglath-pileser III. with Pulu, the Biblical
Pul (2 Kings xv. 19) has been conclusively proved by the discovery of the
Babylonian Chronicle, where the Babylonian reigns of Tiglath-pileser III.
and his son Shalmaneser V. are inserted where the dynastic lists give Pulu
and Ululai, the Poros and Elulaeos of Ptolemy.
2 Here is the concluding portion of the dynasty of the kings of Assyria,
from Irba-ramman to Assur-nirari III. :
IRBA-RAMMAN .... ?
AsSUR-NADlNAKHE II. . ?
TUKULTI-PAL-ESHARRA
[TlGLATHPILESER II.] . 950-935 ?
ASSUR-DANII 935-911?
RAMMAN-NIRARI II. . . 911-890
TUKULTI-NINIP II. , 890-884
ASSUR-XAZIR-PAL III. . . 884-859
SHALMANU-SHARID [SHAL
MANESER III.] . . . 859-824
SAMSI-RAMMAN IV. . . . 824-812
RAMMAN-NIRARI IV. . . 812-782
SHALMANESER IV. . . . 782-772
ASSUR-DAN III 772-754
ASSUR-NIRARI 754-745
170 ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA
In the manner in which it had accomplished its work,
it resembled the Egyptian empire of eight hundred years
before. The Egyptians, setting forth from the Nile valley,
had overrun Syria and had at first brought it under their
suzerainty, though without actually subduing it. They had
invaded Amurru and Zahi, Naharaim and Mitanni, where
they had pillaged, burnt, and massacred at will for years,
without obtaining from these countries, which were too
remote to fall naturally within their sphere of influence,
more than a temporary and apparent submission ; the
regions in the neighbourhood of the isthmus alone had been
regularly administered by the officers of Pharaoh, and when
the country between Mount Seir and Lebanon seemed on
the point of being organised into a real empire the invasion
of the Peoples of the Sea had overthrown and brought to
nought the work of three centuries. The Assyrians, under
the leadership of ambitious kings, had in their turn carried
their arms over the countries of the Euphrates and the
Mediterranean, but, like those of the Egyptians before
them, their expeditions resembled rather the destructive
raids of a horde in search of booty than the gradual and
orderly advance of a civilised people aiming at establishing
a permanent empire. Their campaigns in Coele-Syria and
Palestine had enriched their own cities and spread the
terror of their name throughout the Eastern world, but
their supremacy had only taken firm root in the plains
bordering on Mesopotamia, and just when they were
preparing to extend their rule, a power had sprung up
beside them, over which they had been unable to triumph :
they had been obliged to withdraw behind the Euphrates,
END OF THE SECOND ASSYRIAN EMPIRE 171
and they might reasonably have asked themselves whether,
by weakening the peoples of Syria at the price of the best
blood of their own nation, they had not merely laboured for
the benefit of a rival power, and facilitated the rise of
Urartu. Egypt, after her victory over the Peoples of the
Sea, had seemed likely, for the moment, to make a fresh
start on a career of conquest under the energetic influence
of Eamses III., but her forces proved unequal to the task,
and as soon as the master s hand ceased to urge her on, she
shrank back, without a struggle, within her ancient limits,
and ere long nothing remained to her of the Asiatic empire
carved out by the warlike Pharaohs of the Theban
dynasties. If Tiglath-pileser could show the same courage
and capacity as Eamses III., he might well be equally
successful, and raise his nation again to power ; but time
alone could prove whether Nineveh, on his death, would be
able to maintain a continuous effort, or whether her new
display of energy would prove merely ephemeral, and her
empire be doomed to sink into irremediable weakness under
the successors of her deliverer, as Egypt had done under the
later Eamessides.
TIGLATH-PILESEK III. AND THE
ORGANISATION OF THE ASSYRIAN
EMPIRE FROM 745 TO 722 B.C.
FAILURE OF URARTU AND RE-CONQUEST OF SYRIA EGYPT AGAIN UNITED
UNDER ETHIOPIAN AUSPICES PIONKHI THE DOWNFALL OF DAMASCUS,
OF BABYLON, AND OF ISRAEL.
Assyria and its neighbours at the accession of Tiglath-pileser III. : progress
of the Aramaeans in the basin of the Middle Tigris Urartu and its expansion
into the north of Syria Damascus and Israel Vengeance of Israel on
Damascus Jeroboam II. Civilisation of the Hebrcio kingdoms, their commerce,
industries, private life, and political organisation Dawn of Hebrew literature :
the two historians of Israel The priesthood and the prophets The prophecy
of Amos at Bethel ; denunciation of Israel by Hosea.
Early campaigns of Tiglath-pileser III. in Karduniash and in Media He
determines to attack Urartu in Syria : defeat of Sharduris, campaign around
Arpad, and capture of that city Homage paid by the Syrian princes, by
Menahem and Rezin II. Second campaign against the Medes Invasion
of Urartu and end of its supremacy Alliance of Pekah and Bezin against
Ahaz : the war in Judsea and siege of Jerusalem.
Egypt under the kings of the XXII nd dynasty The Theban principality,
its priests, pallacides, and revolts ; the XXIII rd Tanite dynasty Tafnalhti and
the rise of the Saite family The Egyptian kingdom of Ethiopia: theocratic
nature of its dynasty, annexation of the Thebaid by the kingdom of Napata
PionJchi-Miamun ; his generals in Middle Egypt ; submission of Khmunu, of
Memphis, and of Tafnalchti Effect produced in Asia by the Ethiopian
conquest.
The prophet Isaiah, his rise under Ahaz Intervention of Tiglath-pileser
III. in Hebrew affairs; the campaign of 733 B.C. against IsraelCapture
of Hezin, and the downfall of Damascus Nabunazir ; the Kaldd and the close
of the Babylonian dynasty; usurpation of Ukinzir Campaign against
Ulctnzir; capture of Shapia and of Babylon Tiglath-pileser ascends the
throne in the last-named city under the name of Fulu (729 B.C.) Death of
Tiglath-pileser III. (727 B.C.)
Eeorganisation of the Assyrian empire ; provinces and feudatory states
Karduniash, Syria Wholesale deportation of conquered races Provincial
administrators, their military and financial arrangements Buildings erected by
Tiglath-pileser at CalahThe Bit-Khildni Foundation of feudal lordships
Belharrdn-beluzur - - Shalmaneser V. and Egypt : rebellion of Hoshea, the
siege of Samaria, and the prophecies of Isaiah Sargon Destruction of the
kingdom of Israel.
COMBAT BEFORE THE WALLS OF A FORTRESS. 1
CHAPTER II
TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ORGANISATION OF
THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE FROM 745 TO 722 B.C.
Failure of Urartu and re-conquest of Syria Egypt
again united under Ethiopian auspices Pionkhi
-The downfall of Damascus, of Babylon, and of
Israel.
TWENTS proved that, in this period, at
any rate, the decadence of Assyria
was not due to any exhaustion of the race
or impoverishment of the country, but
was mainly owing to the incapacity of its
kings and the lack of energy displayed
by their generals. If Menuas and
Argistis had again and again triumphed
over the Assyrians during
1 Drawn by Boudier, from Layard.
The vignette, also by Boudier, repre
sents a bronze statuette of Queen Karomama, now in the Louvre.
176 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
half a century, it was not because their bands of raw
recruits were superior to the tried veterans of Ramman-
nirari in either discipline or courage. The Assyrian troops
had lost none of their former valour, and their muster-roll
showed no trace of diminution, but their leaders had lost
the power of handling their men after the vigorous fashion
of their predecessors, and showed less foresight and tenacity
in conducting their campaigns. Although decimated and
driven from fortress to fortress, and from province to
province, hampered by the rebellions it was called upon
to suppress, and distracted by civil discord, the Assyrian
army still remained a strong and efficient force, ever ready
to make its full power felt the moment it realised that
it was being led by a sovereign capable of employing its
good qualities to advantage. Tiglath-pileser had, doubt
less, held a military command before ascending the throne,
and had succeeded in winning the confidence of his men :
as soon as he had assumed the leadership they regained
their former prestige, and restored to their country that
supremacy which its last three rulers had failed to
maintain. 1
1 The official documents dealing with the history of Tiglath-pileser III.
have been seriously mutilated, and there is on several points some difference
of opinion among historians as to the proper order in which the fragments
ought to be placed, and, consequently, as to the true sequence of the various
campaigns. The principal documents are as follows : (1) The Annals in the
Central Hall of the palace of Shalmaneser III. at Nimroud, partly defaced
by Esarhaddon, and carried off to serve as materials for the south-western
palace, whence they were rescued by Layard, and brought in fragments
to the British Museum. (2) The Tablets, K. 3571 and D. T. 3, in the
British Museum. (3} The Slabs of Nimrud, discovered by Layard and G,
Smith.
THE ARA3O3AXS IN THE BASIN OF THE TIGRIS 177
The empire still included the original patrimony of
Assur and its ancient colonies on the Upper Tigris, the
districts of Mesopotamia won from the Aramaeans at
various epochs, the cities of Khabur, Khindanu, Laqi, and
Tel-Abnl, and that portion of Bit-Adini which lay to the
left of the Euphrates. It thus formed a compact mass
capable of successfully resisting the fiercest attacks ; but
the buffer provinces which Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser
III. had grouped round their own immediate domains on
the borders of Namri, of Nairi, of Melitene, and of Syria
had either resumed their independence, or else had thrown
in their lot with the states against which they had been
intended to watch. The Aramaean tribes never let slip an
opportunity of encroaching on the southern frontier. So
far, the migratory instinct which had brought them from
the Arabian desert to the swamps of the Persian Gulf had
met with no check. Those who first reached its shores
became the founders of that nation of the Kalda which
had, perhaps, already furnished Babylon with one of its
dynasties ; others had soon after followed in their footsteps,
and passing beyond the Kalda settlement, had gradually
made their way along the canals which connect the
Euphrates with the Tigris till they had penetrated to the
lowlands of the Uknu. Towards the middle of the eighth
century B.C. they wedged themselves in between Elam and
Karduniash, forming so many buffer states of varying size
and influence. They extended from north to south along
both banks of the Tigris, their different tribes being known
as the Gambulu, the Puqudu, the Litau, the Damunu, the
Kuna, the Khindaru, the Labdudu, the Harilu, and the
VOL. VII. N
178 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Rubuu ; 1 the Itua, who formed the vanguard, reached
the valleys of the Turnat during the reign of Kamman-
nirari III. They were defeated in 791 B.C., but obstinately
renewed hostilities in 783, 782, 777, and 769 ; favoured by
circumstances, they ended by forcing the cordon of Assyrian
outposts, and by the time of Assur-nirari had secured a
footing on the Lower Zab. Close by, to the east of them,
lay Namri and Media, both at that time in a state of
absolute anarchy. The invasions of Menuas and of Argistis
had entirely laid waste the country, and Sharduris III., the
king who succeeded Argistis, had done nothing towards
permanently incorporating them with Urartu. 2 Sharduris,
while still heir-apparent to the throne, had been appointed
by his father governor of the recently annexed territory
belonging to Etius and the Mannai : 3 he made Lununis
his headquarters, and set himself to subdue the barbarians
who had settled between the Kur and the Araxes. When
he succeeded to the throne, about 760 B.C., the enjoyment
of supreme power in no way lessened his activity. On the
contrary, he at once fixed upon the sort of wide isthmus
which separates the Araxes from Lake Urumiah, as the
goal of his incursions, and overran the territory of the
Babilu ; there he carried by storm three royal castles,
1 The list of Aramtean tribes, and the positions occupied by them
towards the middle of the eighth century, have been given us by Tiglath-
pileser III. himself.
2 Tiglath-pileser did not encounter any Urartian forces in these regions,
as would almost certainly have been the case had these countries remained
subject to Urartu from the invasions of Menuas and Argistis onwards.
3 Argistis tells us in the Annals that he had made his son satrap
over the provinces won from the Mannai and Etius : though his name
is not mentioned, Sayce believes this son must have been Sharduris.
WEALTH OF THE CONQUERED TERRITORY 179
twenty-three cities, and sixty villages ; he then fell back
upon Etius, passing through Dakis, Edias, and Urmes on
his way, and brought back with him 12,735 children, 46,600
women, 12,000 men capable of bearing arms, 23,335 oxen,
58,100 sheep, and 2,500 horses; these figures give some
idea of the importance of his victories and the wealth of
the conquered territory. So far as we can learn, he does
not seem to have attacked Khubushkia, 1 nor to have
entered into open rivalry with Assyria; even under the
rule of Assur-nirari III. Assyria showed a bold enough
front to deter any enemy from disturbing her except
when forced to do so. Sharduris merely strove to recover
those portions of his inheritance to which Assyria attached
but little value, and his inscriptions tell us of more than
one campaign waged by him with this object against the
mountaineers of Melitene, about the year 758. He captured
most of their citadels, one after another : Dhumeskis,
Zapsas, fourteen royal castles, and a hundred towns, in
cluding Milid itself, where King Khitaruadas held his
court. 2 At this point two courses lay open before him.
He could either continue his march westwards, and,
penetrating into Asia Miaor, fall upon the wealthy and
1 It is evident from the account of the campaigns that Tiglath-pileser
occupied Khubushkia from the very commencement of his reign ; we must
therefore assume that the invasions of Argistis had produced only transient
effects.
2 These campaigns must have preceded the descent into Syria, and
I believe this latter to have been anterior to the expedition of Assur-nirari
against Arpad in 754 B.C. Assur-nirari probably tried to reconquer the
tribes who had just become subject to Sharduris. The descent of this latter
into Syria probably took place about 75G or 755 B.C., and his wars against
Melitene about 758 to 757 B.C.
180 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
industrious races who led a prosperous existence between
the Halys and the Sangarios, such as the Tabal, the
Chalybes, and the Phrygians, or he could turn south
wards. Deterred, apparently, by the dreary and mono-
A VISTA OF THE ASIATIC STEPPE. 1
tonous aspect of the Asianic steppes,
he chose the latter course ; he crossed
Mount Taurus, descended into Northern Syria about
756, and forced the Khati to swear allegiance to him.
Their inveterate hatred of the Assyrians led the Bit-
Agusi to accept without much reluctance the supremacy
of the only power which had shown itself capable of with
standing their triumphant progress. Arpad became for
Dra-wn by Boudier, from a photograph by Alfred Boissier.
THE EXPANSION OF URARTU INTO NORTHERN SYRIA 181
several years an unfailing support to Urartu and the basis
on which its rule in Syria rested. Assur-nirari had, as we
know, at first sought to recover it, but his attempt to do
so in 754 B.C. was unsuccessful, and merely served to
demonstrate his own weakness : ten years later, Carchemish,
Gurgum, Kummukh, Samalla, Unki, Kul in a word, all
the Arama3ans and the Khati between the Euphrates and
the sea had followed in the steps of the Agusi, and had
acknowledged the supremacy of Sharduris. 1 This prince
must now have been sorely tempted to adopt, on his own
account, the policy of the Ninevite monarchs, and push
on in the direction of Hamath, Damascus, and the
Phoenician seaboard, towards those countries of Israel and
Judah which were nearly coterminous with far-off Egypt.
The rapidity of the victories which he had just succeeded
in winning at the foot of Mount Taurus and Mount
Amanus must have seemed a happy omen of what awaited
his enterprise in the valleys of the Orontes and the Jordan.
Although the races of southern and central Syria had
suffered less than those of the north from the ambition of
the Ninevite kings, they had, none the less, been sorely
tried daring the previous century; and it might be
questioned whether they had derived courage from the
humiliation of Assyria, or still remained in so feeble a
state as to present an easy prey to the first invader.
The defeat inflicted on Mari by Kamman-nirari in 803
had done but little harm to the prestige of Damascus. The
The minimum extent of the dominions of Sharduris in Syria may
be deduced from the list of the allies assigned to him by Tiglath-pileser
in 743 in the Annals.
182 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
influence exercised by this state from the sources of the
Litany to the hrook of Egypt * was based on so solid a
foundation that no temporary reverse had power to weaken
it. Had the Assyrian monarch thrown himself more
seriously into the enterprise, and reappeared before the
ramparts of the capital in the following year, refusing to
leave it till he had annihilated its armies and rased its
walls to the ground, then, no doubt, Israel, Judah, the
Philistines, Edom, and Ammon, seeing it fully occupied in
its own defence, might have forgotten the ruthless severity
of Hazael, and have plucked up sufficient courage to
struggle against the Damascene yoke ; as it was, Kamman-
nirari did not return, and the princes who had, perhaps, for
the moment, regarded him as a possible deliverer, did not
venture on any concerted action. Joash, King of Judah, and
Jehoahaz, King of Israel, continued to pay tribute till both
their deaths, within a year of each other, Jehoahaz in 797
B.C., and Joash in 796, the first in his bed, the second by
the hand of an assassin. 1 Their children, Jehoash in Israel,
Amaziah in Judah, were, at first, like their parents, merely
the instruments of Damascus; but before long, the con
ditions being favourable, they shook off their apathy and
initiated a more vigorous policy, each in his own kingdom.
Mari had been succeeded by a certain Ben-hadad, also a
* [Not the Nile, but the Wady el Arish, the frontier between Southern
Syria and Egypt. Of. Josh. xv. 47 : 2 Kings xxiv. 7, called " river " of
Egypt in the A.V. TR.]
1 2 Kings xii. 20, 21, xiii. 9 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 22-26, where the
death of Joash is mentioned as one of the consequences of the Syrian
invasion, and as a punishment for his crime in killing the sons of
Jehoiada.
THE VENGEANCE OF ISRAEL ON DAMASCUS 183
son of Hazael, 1 and possibly this change of kings was
accompanied by one of those revolutions which had done so
much to weaken Damascus : Jehoash rebelled and defeated
Ben-hadad near Aphek and in three subsequent engage
ments, but he failed to make his nation completely indepen
dent, and the territory beyond Jordan still remained in the
hands of the Syrians. 2 We are told that before embarking
on this venture he went to consult the aged Elisha, then
on his deathbed. He wept to see him in this extremity,
and bending over him, cried out, " My father, my father,
the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof! The
prophet bade him take bow and arrows and shoot from the
window toward the East. The king did so, and Elisha
said, "The Lord s arrow of victory * over Syria; for thou
shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou have consumed
them." Then he went on : " Take the arrows," and the
king took them ; then he said, " Smite upon the ground,"
and the king smote thrice and stayed. And the man of
God was wroth with him, and said, " Thou shouldest have
smitten five or six times ; then hadst thou smitten Syria
till thou hadst consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite
1 2 Kings xiii. 24, 25. Winckler is of opinion that Mari and Ben-
hadad, son of Hazael, were one and the same person.
2 2 Kings xiii. 25. The term " saviour " in 2 Kings xiii. 5 is generally
taken as referring to Joash : Winckler, however, prefers to apply it to the
King of Assyria. The biblical text does not expressly state that Joash
failed to win back the districts of Gilead from the Syrians, but affirms that
he took from them the cities which Hazael " had taken out of the hand
of Jehoahaz, his father." Ramah of Gilead and the cities previously
annexed by Jehoahaz must, therefore, have remained in the hands of
Ben-hadad.
* [Heb. "salvation;" A.V. deliverance." TB.]
T1GLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Syria but thrice." l Amaziah, on his side, had routed the
Edomites in the Valley of Salt, one of David s former
battle-fields, and had captured their capital, Sela. 2 Elated
by his success, he believed himself strong enough to break
the tie of vassalage which bound him to Israel, and sent a
challenge to Jehoash in Samaria. The latter, surprised at
his audacity, replied in a parable, " The thistle that was in
Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying,
Give thy daughter to my son to wife. But " there passed
by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trode down the
thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart
hath lifted thee up : glory thereof and abide at home ; for
why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt that thou shouldest
fall, even thou, and Judah with thee ? " They met near
Beth-shemesh, on the border of the Philistine lowlands.
Amaziah was worsted in the engagement, and fell into the
power of his rival. Jehoash entered Jerusalem and dis
mantled its walls for a space of four hundred cubits, "from
the gate of Ephrairn unto the corner gate ; he pillaged
the Temple, as though it had been the abode, not of
Jahveh, but of some pagan deity, insisted on receiving
hostages before he would release his prisoner, and returned
to Samaria, where he soon after died (781 B.C.). 3 Jeroboam
II. completed that rehabilitation of Israel, of which his
1 2 Kings xiii. 14-19.
2 2 Kings xiv. 7 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxv. 11, 12. Sela was rebuilt, and
received the name of Joktheel from its Hebrew masters. The subjection
of the country was complete, for, later on, the Hebrew chronicler tells
of the conquest of Elath by King Azariah, son of Amaziah (2 Kings
xiv. 22).
3 2 Kings xiv. 8-16 cf. 2 Chron. xxv. 17-24.
JEROBOAM II. 185
father had but sketched the outline; he maintained his
suzerainty, first over Amaziah, and when the latter was
assassinated at Lachish (764), 1 over his son, the young
Azariah. 2 After the defeat of Ben-hadad near Aphek,
Damascus declined still further in power, and Hadrach,
suddenly emerging from obscurity, completely barred the
valley of the Orontes agaiust it. An expedition under
Shalmaneser IV. in 773 seems to have precipitated it to
a lower depth than it had ever reached before : Jeroboam
was able to wrest from it, almost without a struggle, the
cities which it had usurped in the days of Jehu, and Gilead
was at last set free from a yoke which had oppressed it for
more than a century. Tradition goes so far as to affirm
that Israel reconquered the Bekaa, Hamath, and Damascus,
those northern territories once possessed by David, and it is
quite possible that its rivals, menaced from afar by
Assyria and hard pressed at their own doors by Hadrach,
may have resorted to one of those propitiatory overtures
which eastern rnonarchs are only too ready to recognise
as acts of submission. The lesser southern states, such as
Ammon, the Bedawin tribes of Hauran, and, at the
opposite extremity of the kingdom, the Philistines, 3 who
had bowed themselves before Hazael in the days of his
1 2 Kings xiv. 19, 20 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxv. 27, 28.
2 The Hebrew texts make no mention of this subjection of Judah to
Jeroboam II. ; that it actually took place must, however, be admitted,
at any rate in so far as the first half of the reign of Azariah is concerned, as
a necessary outcome of the events of the preceding reigns.
3 The conquests of Jeroboam II. are indicated very briefly in 2 Kings
xiv. 25-28 : cf. Amos vi. 14, where the expressions employed by the prophet
imply that at the time at which he wrote the whole of the ancient kingdom
of David, Judah included, was in the possession of Israel.
186 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
prosperity, now transferred their homage to Israel. Moab
alone offered any serious resistance. It had preserved its
independence ever since the reign of Mesha, having escaped
from being drawn into the wars which had laid waste
the rest of Syria. It was now suddenly forced to pay the
penalty of its long prosperity. Jeroboam made a furious
onslaught upon its cities Ar of Moab, Kir of Moab, Dibon,
Medeba, Heshbon, Elealeh and destroyed them all in
succession. The Moabite forces carried a part of the
population with them in their flight, and all escaped to
gether across the deserts which enclose the southern basin
of the Dead Sea. On the frontier of Edom they begged
for sanctuary, but the King of Judah, to whom the Edomite
valleys belonged, did not dare to shelter the vanquished
enemies of his suzerain, and one of his prophets, forgetting
his hatred of Israel in delight at being able to gratify his
grudge against Moab, greeted them in their distress with a
hymn of joy " I will water thee with my tears, Heshbon
Elealeh : for upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest
the battle shout is fallen. And gladness is taken away and
joy out of the fruitful fields ; and in the vineyards there shall
be no singing, neither joyful noise ; no treader shall tread
out wine in the presses ; I have made the vintage shout to
cease. Wherefore my bowels sound like an harp for Moab,
and my inward parts for Kir-Heres. And it shall come to
pass, when Moab presenteth himself, when he wearieth
himself upon the high place, and shall come to his
sanctuary to pray, he shall not prevail ! " 1
1 Isa. xv. 1-9 ; xvi. 1-12. This prophecy, which had been pronounced
against Moab "in the old days," and which is appropriated by Isaiah
INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 187
This revival, like the former greatness of David and
Solomon, was due not so much to any inherent energy
on the part of Israel, as to the weakness of the nations
on its frontiers. Egypt was not in the habit of intervening
in the quarrels of Asia, and Assyria was suffering from a
temporary eclipse. Damascus had suddenly collapsed,
and Hadrach or "Mansuati, the cities which sought to take
its place, found themselves fully employed in repelling the
intermittent attacks of the Assyrian ; the Hebrews, for a
quarter of a century, therefore, had the stage to themselves,
there being no other actors to dispute their possession of
it. During the three hundred years of their existence as
a monarchy they had adopted nearly all the laws and
customs of the races over whom they held sway, and by
whom they were completely surrounded. The bulk of the
people devoted themselves to the pasturing and rearing of
cattle, and, during the better part of the year, preferred
to live in tents, unless war rendered such a practice
impossible. 1 They had few industries save those of the
potter 2 and the smith, 3 and their trade was almost entirely
(xvi. 13, 14), has been attributed to Jonah, son of Amittai, of Gath-Hepher,
who actually lived in the time of Jeroboam II. (2 Kings xiv. 25). It is now
generally recognised as the production of an anonymous Judsean prophet,
and the earliest authentic fragment of prophetic literature which has come
down to us.
1 Cf. the passage in 2 Kings xiii. 5, " And the children of Israel dwelt
in their tents as beforetime." Although the word ohel had by that time
acquired the more general meaning of habitation, the context here seems to
require us to translate it by its original meaning tent.
2 Pottery is mentioned in 2 Sam. xvii. 28 ; numerous fragments
dating from the monarchical period have been found at Jerusalem and
Lachish.
3 The story of Tubal-Cain (Gen. iv. 22) shows the antiquity of the
188 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
in the hands of foreigners. We find, however, Hebrew
merchants in Egypt, 1 at Tyre, and in Coele-Syria, and they
were so numerous at Damascus that they requested that a
special bazaar might be allotted to them, similar to that
occupied by the merchants of Damascus in Samaria from
time immemorial. 2 The Hebrew monarchs had done their
best to encourage this growing desire for
trade. It was only the complicated state of
Syrian politics that
prevented them
from following the
example of Solo
mon, and opening
communications
by sea with the
far-famed coun
tries of Ophir,
either in competition with the Phoenicians or under
their guidance. Indeed, as we have seen, Jehoshaphat,
encouraged by his alliance with the house of Omri, tried
to establish a seagoing fleet, but found that peasants could
not be turned into sailors at a day s notice, and the vessel
built by him at Eziongeber was wrecked before it left the
ironworker s art among the Israelites; the smith is practically the only
artisan to be found amongst nomadic tribes.
1 The accurate ideas on the subject of Egypt possessed by the earliest
compilers of the traditions contained in Genesis and Exodus, prove that
Hebrew merchants must have been in constant communication with that
country about the time with which we are now concerned.
2 1 Kings xx. 34; cf. what has been said on this point in vol. vi.
pp. 432, 441.
3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from sketches by Warren.
SPECIMENS OF HEBKEW POTTERY. 3
ARCHITECTURE OF THE HEBREW TOWNS 189
harbour. 1 In appearance, the Hebrew towns closely
resembled the ancient Canaanite cities. Egyptian
influences still predominated in their architecture, as may
be seen from what is still left of the walls of Lachish, and
they were fortified in such a way as to be able to defy
the military engines of besiegers. This applies not only
to capitals, like Jerusalem, Tirzah, and Samaria, but even
ISRAELITES OF THE HIGHER CLASS IX THE TIME OF SHALMAXESER III.
to those towns which commanded a road or mountain pass,
the ford of a river, or the entrance to some fertile plain ;
there were scores of these on the frontiers of the two
kingdoms, and in those portions of their territory which
lay exposed to the attacks of Damascus, Moab, Edom, or
the Philistines. 1 The daily life of the inhabitants was,
1 1 Kings xxii. 49, 50 ; 2 Chron. xx. 35-37 ; cf. p. 120, supra.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the Black
Obelisk.
3 2 Chron. xi. G-10, where we find a list of the towns fortified by
190 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
to all intents, the same as at Arpad, Sidon, or Gaza ; and
the dress, dwellings, and customs of the upper and middle
classes cannot have differed in any marked degree from
those of the corresponding grades of society in Syria. The
JUDJEAN PEASANTS. 1
men wore over their tunic a fringed kaffcan, with short
sleeves, open in front, a low-crowned hat, and sandals or
Rehoboam : Bethlehem, Etam, Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah,
Ziph, Adorairn, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Ajalon, Hebron.
Drawn by Boudier, from Layard. These figures are taken from
a bas-relief which represents Sennacherib receiving the submission of Judah
before Lachish.
PRIVATE LIFE OF THE HEBREWS
191
shoes of pliant leather; l they curled their beards and hair,
painted their eyes and cheeks, and wore many jewels ;
while their wives adopted
all the latest refinements
in vogue in the harems
of Damascus, Tyre, or
Nineveh. 2 Descendants
of ancient families paid
for all this luxury out of
the revenues of the wide
domains they had in
herited ; others kept it up
by less honourable means,
by usury, corruption, and
by the exercise of a ruth
less violence towards
neighbours who were un
able to defend themselves.
The king himself set them
an evil example, and did
not hesitate to assassinate
one of his subjects in order
that he might seize a vine
yard which he COVeted ; 3
WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF
1 The kaftan met with in these parts seems to correspond to the meH
(R.V. "ephod ") of the biblical texts (1 Sam. ii. 19 ; xviii. 4, etc.).
2 Isa. iii. 16-24 describes in detail the whole equipment of jewels, paint,
and garments required by the fashionable women of Jerusalem during the
last thirty years of the eighth century B.C.
3 Of. the well-known episode of Naboth and Ahab in 1 Kings xxi.
4 Drawn by Boudier, from Layard,
192 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
it was not to be wondered at, therefore, that the nobles of
Ephraim " sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a
pair of shoes ; " l that they demanded gifts of wheat, and
" turned the needy from their right when they sat as a
jury "at the gate." 2 From top to bottom of the social
ladder the stronger and wealthier oppressed those who were
weaker or poorer than themselves, leaving them with no
hope of redress except at the hands of the king. 3 Un
fortunately, the king, when he did not himself set the
example of oppression, seldom possessed the resources
necessary to make his decisions effective. True, he was
chief of the most influential family in either Judah or
Israel, a chief by divine appointment, consecrated by the
priests and prophets of Jahveh, a priest of the Lord, 4 and
he was master in his own city of Jerusalem or Samaria,
but his authority did not extend far beyond the walls.
It was not the old tribal organisation that embarrassed
him, for the secondary tribes had almost entirely given
up their claims to political independence. The division
of the country into provinces, a consequence of the
establishment of financial districts by Solomon, had broken
them up, and they gradually gave way before the two
houses of Ephraim and Judah ; but the great landed
1 Amos ii. 6. 2 Amos v. 11, 12.
3 2 Kings vi. 26-30 ; viii. 3-8, where, in both instances, it is a woman
who appeals to the king. Of. for the period of David and Solomon, 2 Sam.
xiv. 1-20, and 1 Kings ill 16-27.
4 Of. the anointing of Saul (1 Sam. ix. 16; x. 1 ; and xiv. 1), of David
(1 Sam. xvi. 1-3, 12, 13), of Solomon (1 Kings i. 34, 39, 45), of Jehu
(2 Kings ix. 1-10), and compare it with the unction received by the priests
on their admission to the priesthood (Exod. xxix. 7 ; xxx. 22, 23 ; cf.
Lev. viii. 12, 30 ; x. 7).
THE KING S BODY-GUARD 193
proprietors, especially those who held royal fiefs, enjoyed
almost unlimited power within their own domains. They
were, indeed, called on to render military service, to furnish
forced labour, and to pay certain trifling dues into the
royal treasury ; l hut, otherwise, they were absolute masters
in their own domains, and the sovereign was obliged to
employ force if he wished to extort any tax or act of
homage which they were unwilling to render. For this
purpose he had a standing army distributed in strong
detachments along the frontier, but the flower of his forces
was concentrated round the royal residence to serve as a
body-guard. It included whole companies of foreign
mercenaries, like those Cretan and Carian warriors who,
since the time of David, had kept guard round the Kings
of Judah ; 2 these, in time of war, 3 were reinforced by
militia, drawn entirely from among the landed proprietors,
and the whole force, when commanded by an energetic
leader, formed a host capable of meeting on equal terms
the armies of Damascus, Edom, or Moab, or even the
veterans of Egypt and Assyria. The reigning prince was
hereditary commander-in-chief, but the shar zaba, or
captain of the troops, often took his place, as in the time
1 1 Kings xv. 22 (cf. 2 Chron. xvi. 6), where "King Asa made a
proclamation unto all Judah ; none was exempted," the object in this case
being the destruction of Ramah, the building of which had been begun by
Baasha.
The Carians or Cretans are again referred to in the history of Athaliah
(2 Kings xi. 4).
3 Taking the tribute paid by Menahem to Pul (2 Kings xv. 19, 20) as a
basis, it has been estimated that the owners of landed estate in Israel, who
were in that capacity liable to render military service, numbered 60,000 in
the time of that king ; all others were exempt from military service.
VOL. VII.
194 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
of David, and thereby became the most important person
in the kingdom. More than one of these officers had
already turned against their sovereign the forces which
he had entrusted to them, and these revolts, when crowned
with success, had, on various occasions, in Israel at any
rate, led to a change of dynasty : Omri had been sliar zaba
wiien he mutinied against Zimri, the assassin of Elah, and
Jehu occupied the same position when Elisha deputed him
to destroy the house of Omri.
The political constitutions of Judah and Israel were, on
the whole, very similar to those of the numerous states
which shared the territory of Syria between them, and
their domestic history gives us a fairly exact idea of the
revolutions which agitated Damascus, Hamath, Carchemish,
Arpad, and the principalities of Amanos and Lebanon
about the same period. It would seem, however, that none
of these other nations possessed a literary or religious life
of any great intensity. They had their archives, it is true,
in which were accumulated documents relating to their
past history, their rituals of theology and religious worship,
their collections of hymns and national songs ; but none of
these have survived, and the very few inscriptions that have
come down to us merely show that they had nearly all of
them adopted the alphabet invented by the Phoenicians.
The Israelites, initiated by them into the art of writing,
lost no time in setting down, in their turn, all they could
recall of the destinies of their race from the creation of the
world down to the time in which they lived. From the
beginning of the monarchical epoch onwards, their scribes
collected together in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, the
DAWN OF HEBREW LITERATURE 195
Book of Jashar, and in other works the titles of which have not
survived, lyrics of different dates, in which nameless poets
had sung the victories and glorious deeds of their national
heroes, such as the Song of the Well, the Hymn of Moses,
the triumphal Ode of Deborah, and the blessing of Jacob. 1
They were able to draw upon traditions which preserved
the memory of what had taken place in the time of the
Judges ; 2 and when that patriarchal form of government
was succeeded by a monarchy, they had narratives of the
ark of the Lord and its wanderings, of Samuel, Saul, David,
and Solomon, 3 not to mention the official records which,
1 The books of Jashar and of the Wars of the Lord appear to date from
the IX th century B.C. ; as the latter is quoted in the Elohist narrative,
it cannot have been compiled later than the beginning of the VIII th century
B.C. The passage in Numb. xxi. 146, 15, is the only one expressly attributed
by the testimony of the ancients to the Boole of the Wars of the Lord,
but modern writers add to this the Song of the Well (Numb. xxi. 176, 18),
and the Song of Victory over Moab (Numb. xxi. 276-30). The Sony of the
Bow (2 Sam. i. 19-27) admittedly formed part of the Book of Jashar.
Joshua s Song of Victory over the Amorites (Josh. x. 13), and very probably
the couplet recited by Solomon at the dedication of the Temple (1 Kings viii.
12, 13, placed by the LXX. after verse 53), also formed part of it, as also
the Song of Deborah and the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 1-27).
2 Wellhausen was the first to admit the existence of a Book of Judges
prior to the epoch of Deuteronomy, and his opinion has been adopted by
Kuenen and Driver. This book was probably drawn upon by the two
historians of the IX th and VIII th centuries B.C. of whom we are about to
speak ; some of the narratives, such as the story of Abimelech, and possibly
that of Ehud, may have been taken from a document written at the end of
the X th or the beginning of the IX th centuries B.C.
3 The revolutions which occurred in the family of David (2 Sam.
ix.-xx.) bear so evident a stamp of authenticity that they have been
attributed to a contemporary writer, perhaps Ahimaaz, son of Zadok
(2 Sam. xv. 27), who took part in the events in question. But apart from
this, the existence is generally admitted of two or three books which were
drawn up shortly after the separation of the tribes, containing a kind
196 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
since then, had been continuously produced and accumu
lated by the court historians. 1 It may be that more than
one writer had already endeavoured to evolve from these
materials an Epic of Jahveh and His faithful people, but in
the second half of the IX th century B.C., perhaps in the
time of Jehoshaphat, a member of the tribe of Judah
undertook to put forth a fresh edition. 2 He related how
God, after creating the universe out of chaos, had chosen
His own people, and had led them, after trials innumerable,
to the conquest of the Promised Land. He showed, as he
went on, the origin of the tribes identified with the
children of Israel, and the covenants made by Jahveh with
Moses in the Arabian desert ; while accepting the stories
connected with the ancient sanctuaries of the north and
east at Shechem, Bethel, Peniel, Mahauaim, and Succoth,
it was at Hebron in Judah that he placed the principal
residence of Abraham and his descendants. His style,
while simple and direct, is at the same time singularly
graceful and vivacious ; the incidents he gives are carefully
selected, apt and characteristic, while his narrative passes
from scene to scene without trace of nagging, unburdened
of epic of the history of the first two kings ; the one dealing with Saul, for
instance, was probably written in the time of Jeroboam.
1 The two lists in which the names of the principal personages at the
court of David are handed down to us, mention a certain Jehoshaphat,
son of Ahilud, who was mazkir, or recorder; he retained his post under
Solomon (1 Kings iv. 3).
2 The approximate date of the composition and source of this first
Jehovist is still an open question. Reuss and Kuenen, not to mention
others, believe the Jehovist writer to have been a native of the northern
kingdom ; I have adopted the opposite view, which is supported by most
modern critics.
THE TWO HISTORIANS OF ISRAEL 197
by useless details, and his dialogue, always natural and
easy, rises without effort from the level of familiar con
versation to heights of impassioned eloquence. His aim
was not merely to compile the history of his people : he
desired at the same time to edify them, by showing how sin
first came into the world through disobedience to the
commandments of the Most High, and how man, prosperous
so long as he kept to the laws of the covenant, fell into
difficulties as soon as he transgressed or failed to respect
them. His concept of Jahveh is in the highest degree a
concrete one : he regards Him as a Being superior to other
beings, but made like unto them and moved by the same
passions. He shows anger and is appeased, displays
sorrow and repents Him of the evil. 1 When the descend
ants of Noah build a tower and a city, He draws nigh
to examine what they have done, and having taken account
of their work, confounds their language and thus prevents
them from proceeding farther. 2 He desires, later on, to
confer a favour on His servant Abraham : He appears to
him in human form, and eats and drinks with him. 3
Sodom and Gomorrah had committed abominable iniquities,
the cry against them was great and their sin very grievous :
but before punishing them, He tells Abraham that He will
go down and see whether they have done according to the
cry of it which is come unto Me ; and if not, I will know." 4
Exod. iv. 14 and xxxii. 10, anger of Jahveh against Moses and against
Israel ; Gen. vi. G, 7, where He repents and is sorry for having created
man; and Exod. xxxii. 14, where He repents Him of the evil He had
intended to do unto Israel.
8 Gen. xi. 5-8. 3 en _ xv iii.
4 Gen. xviii. and xix.
198 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Elsewhere He wrestles a whole night long with Jacob ; l or
falls upon Moses, seeking to kill him, until appeased by
Zipporah, who casts the blood-stained foreskin of her child
at her husband s feet. 2 This book, though it breathes the
spirit of the prophets and was perhaps written in one of
their schools, did not, however, include all the current
narratives, and omitted many traditions that were passing
from lip to lip ; moreover, the excessive materialism of its
treatment no longer harmonised with that more idealised
concept of the Deity which had already begun to prevail.
Consequently, within less than a century of its appearance,
more than one version containing changes and interpolations
in the narrative came to be circulated, 3 till a scribe of
Ephraim, who flourished in the time of Jeroboam II., took
up the subject and dealt with it in a different fashion. 4
Putting on one side the primitive accounts of the origin of
i Gen. xxxii. 24, 25. 2 Exod. iv. 24-2G.
3 Schrader and Wellhausen have drawn attention to contradictions in
the primitive history of humanity as presented by the Jehovist which
forbid us to accept it as the work of a single writer. Nor can these
inconsistencies be due to the influence of the Elohist, since the latter
did not deal with this period in his book. Budde has maintained that the
primitive work contained no account of the Deluge, and traced the descent
of all the nations, Israel included, back to Cain, and he declares he can
detect in the earlier chapters of Genesis traces of a first Jehovist, whom he
calls J 1 . A second Jehovist, J 2 , who flourished between 800 and 700 B.C., is
supposed to have added to the contribution of the first, certain details
borrowed from the Babylonian tradition, such as the Deluge, the story of
Noah, of Nimrod, etc. Finally, a third Jehovist is said to have thrown
the versions of his two predecessors into one, taking J 2 as the basis of
his work.
4 The date and origin of the Elohist have given rise to no less
controversy than those of the Jehovist : the view most generally adopted is
that he was a native of the northern kingdom, and flourished about 750 B.C.
IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY B.C. 199
the human race which his predecessors had taken pleasure
in elaborating, he confined his attention solely to events
since the birth of Abraham ; 1 his origin is betrayed by the
preference he displays for details calculated to natter the
self-esteem of the northern tribes. To his eyes, Joseph is
the noblest of all the sons of Jacob, before whom all the
rest must bow their heads, as to a king ; next to Joseph
comes Reuben, to whom rather than to Judah 2 he gives
the place as firstborn. He groups his characters round
Bethel and Shechem, the sanctuaries of Israel ; even
Abraham is represented as residing, not at Hebron in
Judaea, but at Beersheba, a spot held in deep veneration
by pilgrims belonging to the ten tribes. 3 It is in his
concept of the Supreme Being, however, that he differs
most widely from his predecessors. God is, according to
him, widely removed from ordinary humanity. He no
longer reveals Himself at all times and in all places, hut
works rather by night, and appears to men in their dreams,
or, when circumstances require His active interference, is
content to send His angels rather than come in His own
person. 4 Indeed, such cases of active interference are of
rare occurrence, and He prefers to accomplish His purpose
1 Buckle seems to have proved conclusively that the Elohist did not
write any part of the primitive history of mankind.
2 Gen. xxxvii. 21, 22, 29, 30; xlii. 22, 27; whereas in Gen. xliii. 3,
8-10, where the narrative is from the pen of the Jehovist, it is Judah that
plays the principal part: it is possible that, in Gen. xxxvii. 21, Reuben has
been substituted in the existing text for Judah.
3 Gen. xxi. 31, 33 ; xxii. 19 ; the importance of Beersheba as a holy
place resorted to by pilgrims from the northern kingdom is shown in 1 Kings
xix. 3, and Amos v. 5 ; viii. 14.
4 Gen. xx. 3-8 ; xxviii. 11-15 ; xxxi 24 ; Numb. xxii. 8-12, 20.
200 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
through human agents, who act unconsciously, or even in
direct contravention of their own clearly expressed inten
tions. 1 Moreover it was only by degrees that He revealed
His true nature and title ; the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and Joseph, had called Him Elohim, or " the gods,"
and it was not until the coming of Moses that He disclosed
His real name of Jahveh to His worshippers. 2 In a word,
this new historian shows us in every line that the
theological instinct has superseded popular enthusiasm,
and his work loses unmistakably in literary interest by the
change. We feel that he is wanting in feeling and inspi
ration ; his characters no longer palpitate with life ; his
narrative drags, its interest decreases, and his language
is often deficient in force and colour.
But while writers, trained in the schools of the prophets,
thus sought to bring home to the people the benefits which
their God had showered on them, the people themselves
showed signs of disaffection towards Him, or were, at any
rate, inclined to associate with Him other gods borrowed
from neighbouring states, and to overlay the worship they
rendered Him with ceremonies and ideas inconsistent with
its original purity. The permanent division of the nation
into two independent kingdoms had had its effect on their
religion as well as on their political life, and had separated
the worshippers into two hostile camps. The inhabitants
of Judah still continued to build altars on their high places,
1 Gen. \. 20, end of the story of Joseph : " And as for you, ye meant
evil against me ; but God meant it for good, to bring it to pass as it is this
day, to save much people alive."
2 Exod. iii. 13, 14 ; verse 15 is an interpolation of much later date.
Prayer at Sunset
After Painting by Gerome
THE PRIESTHOOD OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL 201
as they had done in the time before David ; there, the
devout prostrated themselves before the sacred stones and
before the Asherah, or went in unto the kedesJioth in honour
of Astarte, and in Jahveh s own temple at Jerusalem they
had set up the image of a brazen serpent to which they
paid homage. 1 The feeling, however, that the patron deity
of the chosen people could have but one recognised
habitation the temple built for Him by Solomon and
that the priests of this temple were alone qualified to
officiate there in an effective manner, came to prevail more
and more strongly in Judaea. The king, indeed, continued
to offer sacrifices and prayer there, 2 but the common people
could no longer intercede with their God except through
the agency of the priests. The latter, in their turn, tended
to develop into a close corporation of families consecrated
for generations past to the priestly office ; they came in
time to form a tribe by themselves, which took rank among
the other tribes of Israel, and claimed Levi, one of the
twelve sons of Jacob, as its ancestor. Their head, chosen
1 Cf. what we are told of idolatrous practices in Judah under Rehoboain
and Abijam (1 Kings xiv. 22-24; xv. 3), and of the tolerance of high
places by Asa and Jehoshaphat (1 Kings xv. 14; xxii. 44); even at the
period now under consideration neither Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 4) nor
Azariah (2 Kings xv. 4) showed any disposition to prohibit them. The
brazen serpent was still in existence in the time of Hezekiah, at the close of
the VHP" century B.C. (2 Kings xviii. 4).
2 2 Kings xvi. 10-16, where Ahaz is described as offering sacrifice and
giving instructions to the high priest Urijah as to the reconstruction and
service of the altar ; cf. 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-21, where similar conduct on the
part of Uzziah is recorded, and where the leprosy by which he was attacked
is, in accordance with the belief of later times, represented as a punishment
of the sacrilege committed by him in attempting to perform the sacrifice
in person.
202 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
from among the descendants of Zadok, who had been the
first high priest in the reign of Solomon, was by virtue of
his office one of the chief ministers of the crown, and we
know what an important part was played by Jehoiadah in
the revolution which led to the deposition of Athaliah ; the
high priest was, however, no less subordinate to the supreme
power than his fellow-ministers, and the sanctity of his
office did not avail to protect him from ill-treatment or
death if he incurred the displeasure of his sovereign. 1 He
had control over a treasury continually enriched by the
offerings of the faithful, and did not always turn his trust
to the best uses ; in times of extreme distress the king used
to borrow from him as a last resource, in order to bring
about the withdrawal of an invader, or purchase the help of
a powerful ally. 2 The capital of Israel was of too recent
foundation to allow of its chapel royal becoming the official
centre of national worship ; the temple and priesthood of
Samaria never succeeded in effacing the prestige enjoyed
by the ancient oracles, though in the reign of both the first
and second Jeroboam, Dan, Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah had
each its band of chosen worshippers. 3 At these centres
1 In order to form an idea of the relative positions occupied by the king
and the high priest, we must read what is told of Jehoiadah and Joash
(2 Kings xii. 6-16), or Urijah and Ahaz (2 Kings xvi. 10-16) ; the story
runs that Zechariah was put to death by Joash (2 Chron. xxiv. 22).
2 Asa did so in order to secure Ben-hadad s help against Baasha (1
Kings xv. 18, 19 ; cf. 2 Chron. xvi. 2, 3) : as to the revenues by which
the treasury of the temple was supported and the special dues appropriated
to it, cf. 2 Kings xii. 4, 5, 7-16, and xxii. 4-7, 9.
3 In the time of Jeroboam II., Bethel, Gilgal, and Dan are mentioned
by Amos (iv. 4 ; v. 5, 6; viii. 14), by Hosea (iv. lo ; ix. lo ; xii. 12).
Mizpah is mentioned by Hosea (v. 1), and so is Tabor. The altar of Jahveh
on Mount Carmel was restored by Elijah (1 Kings xviii. 30).
REGULATIONS IN FORCE IN THE TEMPLES 203
adoration was rendered to the animal presentment of
Jahveh, 1 and even prophets like Elijah and Elisha did not
condemn this as heretical ; they had enough to do in
hunting down the followers of Baal without entering into
open conflict with the worshippers of the golden calf. The
priesthood of the northern kingdom was not confined to
members of the family of Levi, but was recruited from all
the tribes ; it levied a tithe on the harvest, reserved to
itself the pick of the offerings and victims, and jealously
forbade a plurality of sanctuaries. 2 The Book of the
-*<**$ >r\ 1 _^^-*-
^f^ &&T-
g , ^-4 . CEi
EGYPTIAN ALTAE AT DEIR-EL-BAHAKI. 3
Covenant 4 has handed down to us the regulations in force
at one of these temples, perhaps that of Bethel, one of the
1 The golden calves at Dan and Bethel are referred to by Amos
(viii. 14) and Hosea (x. 5), where Bethel is called Beth-aven ; as to the
golden calf at Samaria, cf. Amos viii. 14 and Hos. viii. 5, 6.
2 Amos iv. 4, 5 ; v. 21-23.
3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a restoration by Naville.
4 This is the title given in Exod. xxiv. 7 to a writing in which Moses is
said to have entered the covenant made between Jahveh and Israel ;
it is preserved, with certain interpolations and alterations, in Exod. xx. 23
xxiii. 33. It was inserted in its entirety in the Elohist narrative, there
taking the place at present occupied by Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch,
viz. that of the covenant made between Jahveh and Israel prior to the
crossing of the Jordan (KusNEX, H. C. Onderzoeh, i. 13, No. 32). Reuss
tries to make out that it was the code promulgated on the occasion of
Jehoshaphat s legal reforms, which is only referred to in 2 Citron, xvii.
7-9 ; cf. xix. 5. A more probable theory is that it was the " custom " of
one of the great sanctuaries of the northern kingdom reduced to writing at
the end of the X th or during the IX th century B.C.
204 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
wealthiest of them all. The directions in regard to ritual
are extremely simple, and the moral code is based through
out on the inexorable lex talionis, " Life for life, eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for
burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." * This brief
code must have been almost universally applicable to
every conjuncture of civil and religious life in Judah no
less than in Israel. On one point only do we find a
disagreement, and that is in connection with the one and
only Holy of Holies to the possession of which the southern
kingdom had begun to lay claim : in a passage full of
significance Jahveh declares, " An altar of earth thou shalt
make unto Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt
offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine
oxen : in every place where I record My name I will come
unto thee and I will bless thee. And if thou make Me an
altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones : for if
thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither
shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy naked
ness be not discovered thereon." 2 The patriarchs and
early ancestors of the race had performed their sacrifices in
the open air, on rude and low altars, differing widely from
lofty and elaborately ornamented erections like those at
Jerusalem, which seem to have borne a resemblance to the
altars of the Egyptians : the author of the Book of the
Covenant advises the faithful to follow the example of those
great men rather than that of the Levites of Judah.
Nevertheless this multiplicity of high places was not
without its dangers ; it led the common people to confuse
1 Exod. xxi. 23-25. 2 Exod. xx. 24-2G.
THE STATUS OF THE PROPHETS 205
Jahveh with the idols of Canaan, and encouraged the
spread of foreign superstitions. The misfortunes which had
come thick and fast upon the Israelites ever since the
division of the kingdom had made them only too ready to
seek elsewhere that support and consolation which they
could no longer find at home. The gods of Damascus and
Assur who had caused the downfall of Grath, of Calneh, and
A
of Hamath, 1 those of Tyre and Sidon who lavished upon
the Phoenicians the wealth of the seas, or even the deities
of Ammon, Moab, or Edorn, might well appear more desir
able than a Being Who, in spite of His former promises,
seemed powerless to protect His own people. A number
of the Israelites transferred their allegiance to these
powerful deities, prostrated themselves before the celestial
host, flocked round the resting-places of Kevan, the star
of El, and carried the tabernacles of the King of heaven ; 2
nor was Judah slow to follow their example. The prophets,
however, did not view their persistent ill-fortune in the
same light as the common people ; far from accepting it as
a proof of the power of other divinities, they recognised in it
a mark of Jahveh s superiority. In their eyes Jahveh was
the one God, compared with Whom the pagan deities were
no gods at all, and could not even be said to exist. He
might, had He so willed it, have bestowed His protection
on any one of the numerous races whom He had planted
on the earth : but as a special favour, which He was under
no obligation to confer, He had chosen Israel to be His
own people, and had promised them that they should
1 Amos vi. 2 ; with regard to the destruction of Gath by Hazael.
2 Amos v. 26, 27.
206 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
occupy Canaan so long as they kept free from sin. But
Israel had sinned, Israel had followed after idols ; its mis
fortunes were, therefore, but the just penalty of its unfaith
fulness. Thus conceived, Jahveh ceased to be merely the
god of a nation He became the God of the whole world ;
and it is in the guise of a universal Deity that some, at any
rate, of the prophets begin to represent Him from the time
of Jeroboam II. onwards.
This change of view in regard to the Being of Jahveh
coincided with a no less marked alteration in the character
of His prophets. At first they had taken an active part
in public affairs ; they had thrown themselves into the
political movements of the time, and had often directed
their course, 1 by persuasion when persuasion sufficed, by
violence when violence was the only means that was left
to them of enforcing the decrees of the Most High. Not
long before this, we find Elisha secretly conspiring against
1 Cf. the part taken by Nathan in the conspiracy which raised Solomon
to the throne (1 Kings i. 8, et seq.), and previous to this in the story
of David s amour with Bathsheba (2 Sam. xii. 1-25). Similarly, we find
prophets such as Ahijah in the reign of Jeroboam I. (1 Kings xi. 29-39 ;
cf. xiv. 1-18 ; xv. 29, 30), and Shemaiah in the reign of Rehoboam (1 Kings
xii. 22-24), Jehu son of Hananiah under Baasha (1 Kings xvi. 1-4, 7,
12, 13), Micaiah son of Imla, and Zedekiah under Ahab (1 Kings xxii.
5-28), not to speak of those mentioned in the Chronicles, e.g. Azariah son of
Oded (2 Citron, xv. 1-8), and Hanani under Asa (2 Cliron. xvi. 7-10),
Jahaziel (2 Cliron. xx. 14-19), and Eliezer, son of Dodavahu (2 Chron.
xx. 37), in the time of Jehoshaphat. No trace of any writings composed
by these prophets is found until a very late date ; but in Chronicles, in
addition to a letter from Elijah to Jehoram of Juda (2 Chron. xxi. 12-15),
we find a reference to the commentary of the prophet Iddo in the time of
Abijah (2 Chron. xiii. 22), and to the " History of Jehu the son of Hanani,
which is inserted in the book of the kings of Israel " (2 Chron. xx. 34), in
the time of Jehoshaphat.
AMOS OF TEKOA 207
the successors of Aliab, and taking a decisive part in the
revolution which set the house of Jehu on the throne in
place of that of Omri ; but during the half-century which
had elapsed since his death, the revival in the fortunes of
Israel and its growing prosperity under the rule of an
energetic king had furnished the prophets with but few
pretexts for interfering in the conduct of state affairs.
They no longer occupied themselves in resisting the king,
but addressed themselves to the people, pointed out the
heinousness of their sins, and threatened them with the
wrath of Jahveh if they persisted in their unfaithfulness :
they carne to be spiritual advisers rather than political
partisans, and orators rather than men of action like their
predecessors. Their discourses were carefully prepared
beforehand, and were written down either by themselves
or by some of their disciples for the benefit of posterity,
in the hope that future generations would understand the
dangers or witness the catastrophes which their contem
poraries might not live to see About 760 B.C., Amos of
Tekoa, 1 a native of Judaoa, suddenly made his appearance
at Bethel, in the midst of the festivals which pilgrims had
flocked to celebrate in the ancient temple erected to
Jahveh in one of His animal forms. His opening words
filled the listening crowd with wonder : " The high places
of Isaac shall be desolate," he proclaimed, " and the
sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste ; and I will rise
1 The title of the Book of Amos fixes the date as being "in the days of
Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king
of Israel" (i. 1), and the state of affairs described by him corresponds
pretty closely with what we know of this period. Most critics fix the
date somewhere between 760 and 750 B.C., but nearer 760 than 750.
208 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
against the house of Jerohoam with the sword," Yet
Jeroboam had by this time gained all his victories, and
never before had the King of Samaria appeared to be more
firmly seated on the throne : what, then, did this intruder
mean by introducing himself as a messenger of wrath in
the name of Jahveh, at the very moment when Jahveh
was furnishing His worshippers with abundant signs of His
favour ? Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, interrupted him as
he went on to declare that " Jeroboam should die by the
sword, and Israel should surely be led away captive out
of his land." The king, informed of what was going on,
ordered Amos into exile, and Amaziah undertook to com-
municate this sentence to him : " thou seer, go, flee
thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread,
and prophesy there : but prophesy not again any more at
Bethel : for it is the king s sanctuary, and it is a royal
house." And Amos replied, "I was no prophet, neither
was I a prophet s son ; but I was a herdman, and a dresser
of sycomore trees : and the Lord took me from following
the nock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto
My people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of
the Lord : Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and
drop not thy word against the house of Isaac : therefore
thus saith the Lord : Thy wife shall be an harlot in the
city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the
sword, and thy land shall be divided by line ; and thou
thyself shalt die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall
surely be led away captive out of his land." This
prophecy, first expanded, and then written down with a
1 Amos vii. 9, 2 Amos vii. 9-17.
THE PROPHECY OF AMOS AT BETHEL 209
purity of diction and loftiness of thought which prove
Amos to have been a master of literary art, 1 was widely
circulated, and gradually gained authority as portents
indicative of the divine wrath hegan to accumulate, such
as an earthquake which occurred two years after the
incident at Bethel, 2 an eclipse of the sun, drought, famine,
and pestilence. 3 It foretold, in the first place, the down
fall of all the surrounding countries Damascus, Gaza,
Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Judah ; then, denouncing
Israel itself, condemned it to the same penalties for the
same iniquities. In vain did the latter plead its privileges
as the chosen people of Jahveh, and seek to atone for its
guilt by endless sacrifices. " I hate, I despise your feasts,"
declared Jahveh, " and I will take no delight in your
solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer Me your burnt
offerings and meat offerings, I will not accept them :
neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat
beasts. Take thou away from Me the noise of thy
songs ; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But
let judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness
as a mighty stream." 4 The unfaithfulness of Israel,
the corruption of its cities, the pride of its nobles, had
sealed its doom ; even at that moment the avenger was
1 S. Jerome describes Amos as "rusticus" and "imperitus sermone, " but
modern writers are generally agreed that in putting forward this view
he was influenced by the statement as to the peasant origin of the prophet.
Amos i. 1 ; reference is made to it by the unknown prophet whose
words are preserved in Zcch. xiv. 5.
3 The famine is mentioned in Amos iv. 6, the drought in Amos iv. 7, 8,
the pestilence in Amos iv. 10.
4 Amos v. 21-24.
VOL. VII. P
210 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
at hand on its north-eastern border, the Assyrian appointed
to carry out sentence upon it. 1 Then follow visions, each
one of which tends to deepen the effect of the seer s words
a cloud of locusts, 2 a devouring fire, 3 a plumh-line in the
hands of the Lord, 4 a basket laden with summer fruit 5
till at last the whole people of Israel take refuge in their
temple, vainly hoping that there they may escape from
the vengeance of the Eternal. " There shall not one of
them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.
Though they dig into hell, thence shall Mine hand take
them ; and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I
bring them down. And though they hide themselves in
the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence ;
and though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of
the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall
bite them. And though they go into captivity before their
enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall
slay them ; and I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil
and not for good." 6 For the first time in history a
prophet foretold disaster and banishment for a whole
people : love of country was already giving place in the
1 Most commentators admit that the nation raised up by Jahveh to
oppress Israel " from the entering in of Hamath unto the brook of the
Arabah " (Amos vi. 14) was no other than Assyria. At the very period
in which Amos nourished, Assurdan made two campaigns against Hadrach,
in 765 and 755, which brought his armies right up to the Israelite
frontier (SCHRADER, Keilinschriftliclie Bibliothek, vol. i. pp. 210-213).
- Amos vii. 1-3. 3 Amos vii. 4-6.
4 Amos vii. 7-9. It is here that the speech delivered by the prophet
at Bethel is supposed to occur (vii. 9) ; the narrative of what afterwards
happened follows immediately (Amos vii. 10-17).
5 Amos viii. 1-3. u Amos ix. 1-4.
DENUNCIATION OP ISRAEL BY HOSE A 211
heart of Amos to his conviction of the universal jurisdiction
of God, and this conviction led him to regard as possible
and probable a state of things in which Israel should have
no part. Nevertheless, its decadence was to be merely
temporary ; Jahveh, though prepared to chastise the
posterity of Jacob severely, could not bring Himself to
destroy it utterly. The kingdom of David was soon to
flourish anew : " Behold, the days come, salth the Lord,
that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the
treader of grapes him that soweth seed ; and the mountains
shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I
will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they
shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them ; and they
shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they
shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I
will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more
be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,
saith the Lord thy God." *
The voice of Amos was not the only one raised in
warning. From the midst of Ephraiin, another seer, this
time a priest, Hosea, son of Beeri, 2 was never weary of
1 Amos ix. 13-15.
2 Hoshea (or Hosea) was regarded by the rabbis as the oldest of the
lesser prophets, and his writings were placed at the head of their collected
works. The title of his book (Ho s. i. 1), where he begins by stating that
he preached " in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash (Jehoash), King of
Israel," is a later interpolation ; the additional mention of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, is due to an attempted analogy with
the title of Isaiah. Hosea was familiar with the prophecies of Amos, and
his own predictions show that the events merely foreseen by his predecessor
were now in course of fulfilment in his day. The first three chapters
probably date from the end of the reign of Jeroboam, about 750 B.C. ; the
others were compiled under his successors, and before 734-733 B.C., since
212 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
reproaching the tribes with their ingratitude, and persisted
in his foretelling of the desolation to come. The halo
of grandeur and renown with which Jeroboam had
surrounded the kingdom could not hide its wretched
and paltry character from the prophet s eyes ; "for yet
a little while, and I w T ill avenge the blood of Jezreel upon
the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the
house of Israel to cease. And it shall come to pass at that
day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of
Jezreel." 1 Like his predecessor, he, too, inveighed
against the perversity and unfaithfulness of his people.
The abandoned wickedness of Gorner, his wife, had brought
him to despair. In the bitterness of his heart, he demands
of Jahveh why He should have seen fit to visit such humi
liation on His servant, and persuades himself that the
faithlessness of which he is a victim is but a feeble type
of that which Jahveh had suffered at the hands of His
people. Israel had gone a-whormg after strange gods, and
the day of retribution for its crimes was not far distant :
" The children of Israel shall abide many days without king
and without prince, and without sacrifice and without
pillar, and without ephod or teraphim ; afterward shall the
children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and
David their king ; and shall come with fear unto the Lord
and to His goodness in the latter days." 2 Whether the
Gilead is there mentioned as still forming part of Israel (Hos. vi. 8 ; xii. 12),
though it was in that year laid waste and conquered by Tiglath-pileser III.
Duhm has suggested that Hosea must have been a pi iest from the tone
of his writings, and this hypothesis is generally accepted by theologians.
1 Hos. i. 4, 5.
2 Hos. i.-iii. Is the story of Hosea and his wife an allegory, or does it
SYRIA REDUCED TO EXTREMITY 218
decadence of the Hebrews was or was not due to the purely
moral and religious causes indicated by the prophets, it
was only too real, and even the least observant among
their contemporaries must have suspected that the two
kingdoms were quite unfitted, as to their numbers, their
military organisation, and monetary reserves, to resist
successfully any determined attack that might be made
upon them by surrounding nations. An armed force
entering Syria by way of the Euphrates could hardly fail
to overcome any opposition that might be offered to it,
if not at the first onset, at any rate after a very brief
struggle ; none of the minor states to be met upon its way,
such as Damascus or Israel, much less those of Hamath
or Hadrach, were any longer capable of barring its
progress, as Ben-hadad and Hazael had arrested that of
the Assyrians in the time of Shalmaneser III. The efforts
then made by the Syrian kings to secure their inde
pendence had exhausted their resources and worn out
the spirit of their peoples ; civil war had prevented them
from making good their losses during the breathing-space
afforded by the decadence of Assyria, and now that Nature
herself had afflicted them with the crowning misfortunes
of famine and pestilence, they were reduced to a mere
shadow of what they had been. during the previous century.
If, therefore, Sharduris, after making himself master of
the countries of the Taurus and Amanos, had turned his
steps towards the valley of the Orontes, he might have
rest on a basis of actual fact 1 Most critics now seem to incline to the
A^iew that the prophet has here set clown an authentic episode from his own
career, and uses it to point the moral of his work.
214 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
secured possession of it without much difficulty, and after
that there would have been nothing to prevent his soldiers
from pressing on, if need be, to the walls of Samaria or
even of Jerusalem itself. Indeed, he seems to have at last
made up his mind to embark on this venture, when the
revival of Assyrian power put a stop to his ambitious
schemes. Tiglath-pileser, hard pressed on every side by
daring and restless foes, began by attacking those who
were at once the most troublesome and most vulnerable
the Aramaean tribes on the banks of the Tigris. To give
these incorrigible banditti, who boldly planted their
outposts not a score of leagues from his capital, a free
hand on his rear, and brave the fortune of war in Armenia
or Syria, without first teaching them a lesson in respect,
would have been simply to court serious disaster; an
Aramaean raid occurring at a time when he was engaged
elsewhere with the bulk of his army, might have made
it necessary to break off a successful campaign and fall
back in haste to the relief of Nineveh or Calah (Kalakh),
just as he was on the eve of gaining some decisive
advantage. Moreover, the suzerainty of Assyria over
Karduniash entailed on him the duty of safeguarding
Babylon from that other horde of Aramaeans which
harassed it on the east, while the Kalda were already
threatening its southern frontier. It is not quite clear
whether Nabunazlr who then occupied the throne implored
his help : l at any rate, he took the field as soon as he felt
that his own crown was secure, overthrew the Aramaeans
1 Nabunazir is the Naboiiassar who afterwards gave his name to the era
employed by Ptolemy.
EARLY CAMPAIGNS IX KARDUNIASH AND MEDIA 215
at the first encounter, and drove them back from the banks
of the Lower Zab to those of the Uknu : all the countries
which they had seized to the east of the Tigris at once fell
again into the hands of the Assyrians. This first point
gained, Tiglath-pileser crossed the river, and made a
demonstration in force before the Babylonian fortresses.
He visited, one after another, Sippar, Nipur, Babylon,
Borsippa, Kuta, Klshu, Dilbat, and Uruk, " cities without
peer," and offered in all of them sacrifices to the gods, to
Bel, to Zirbanit, to Nebo, to Tashmit, and to Nirgal.
Karduniash bowed down before him, but he abstained from
giving any provocation to the Kalda, and satisfied with
haviag convinced Nabunazir that Assyria had lost none
of her former vigour, he made his way back to his
hereditary kingdom. 1 The lightly-won success of this
expedition produced the looked-for result. Tiglath-pileser
had set out a king de facto ; but now that the gods of the
ancient sanctuaries had declared themselves satisfied with
his homage, and had granted him that religious consecra
tion which had before been lacking, he returned a king
de jure as well (745 B.C.). His next campaign completed
what the first had begun. The subjugation of the plain
would have been of little advantage if the highlands had
been left in the power of tribes as yet unconquered, and
allowed to pour down with impunity bands of rapacious
1 Most historians believe that Tiglath-pileser entered Karduniash as an
enemy : that he captured several towns, and allowed the others to ransom
themselves on payment of tribute. The way in which the texts known to
us refer to this expedition seems to me, however, to prove that he set out
as an ally and protector of Nabonazir, and that his visit to the Babylonian
sanctuaries was of a purely pacific nature.
210 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
freebooters on the newly liberated provinces : security
between the Zab and the Uknu could only be attained by
the pacification of Namri, and it was, therefore, to Namri
that the sea of war was transferred in 744 B.C. All the
Cosssean and Babylonian races intermingled in the valleys
on the frontier were put to ransom one after another.
jfyifg*^ vt^^ ^g^ : ^^%;b^^^i
^ ""O?>A Xc^^M$ % r-^TlT: V
^^SMBs^*l ni^W 1
rAMPATCVS DF ^ l A ^ /^* t -~i *%.V*- s ^R , ifk arr
^Pwtafo&k V//-- i:r ^ V\V /x
TIGLATH-PILESER III ^
""^x
in MEDIA
Scale
-T.KJ -X^
l^wt^SffVrafr \ vW^
^S^^
These included the Bit-Sangibuti, the Bit-Khamban, the
Barrua, the Bit-Zualzash, the Bit-Matti, the Uinliash, the
Parsua, the Bit-Zatti, the Blt-Zabdadani, the Bit-Ishtar,
the city of Zakruti, the Nina, the Bustus, the Arakuttu, by
which the conqueror gradually made his way into the heart
of Media, reaching districts into which none of his prede
cessors had ever penetrated. Those least remote he
annexed to his own empire, converting them into a
RETURNING WITH THE SPOILS 217
province under the rule of an Assyrian governor ; he then
returned to Calah with a convoy of 60,500 prisoners, and
countless herds of oxen, sheep, mules, and dromedaries.
Whilst he was thus employed, Assur-dainani, one of his
generals to whom he had entrusted the pick of his army,
pressed on still further to the north-east, across the almost
waterless deserts of Media. The mountainous district on
the shores of the Caspian had for centuries enjoyed a
reputation for wealth and fertility among the races settled
on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. It was from
thence that they obtained their lapis-lazuli, and the hills
from which it was extracted were popularly supposed to
consist almost entirely of one compact mass of this
precious mineral. Their highest peak, now known as the
Deinavend, was then called Bikni, 1 a name which had come
to be applied to the whole district. To the Assyrians
it stood as the utmost boundary mark of the known world,
beyond which their imagination pictured little more than
a confused mist of almost fabulous regions and peoples.
Assur-dainani caught a distant glimpse of the snow-capped
pyramid of Demavend, but approached no nearer than its
lower slopes, whence he retraced his steps after having
levied tribute from their inhabitants. The fame of this
exploit spread far and wide in a marvellously short space
of time, and chiefs who till then had vacillated in their
decision now crowded the path of the victor, eager to pay
him homage on his return : even the King of Illipi thought
it wise to avoid the risk of invasion, and hastened of his
1 The country of Bikni is probably Rhagian Media and Mount Bikni, the
modern Demavend.
218 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
own accord to meet the conqueror. Here, again, Tiglath-
pileser had merely to show himself in order to re-establish
the supremacy of Assyria : the races of the plain, for many
years familiar with defeat, made no pretence of serious
resistance, but bowed their necks beneath a fresh yoke
almost without pro
test.
PRINCIPAL PEAK OF MOUNT
BIKXT (DEMAVEKD).
Having thus secured his rear from attack for some
years at any rate, Tiglath-pileser no longer hesitated to
try conclusions with Urartu. The struggle in which he
now deliberately engaged could not fail to be a decisive
one ; for Urartu, buoyed up and borne on the wave of
some fifty years of prosperity, had almost succeeded in
reaching first rank among the Asiatic powers : one more
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.
TIGLATH-PILESER ATTACKS URARTU IN SYRIA 219
victory over Nineveh, and it would become for how long
none might say undisputed mistress of the whole of Asia.
Assyria, on the other hand, had reached a point where
its whole future hung upon a single issue of defeat or
victory. The prestige with which the brilliant campaigns of
Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III. had invested its name,
if somewhat diminished, had still survived its recent
reverses, and the terror inspired by its arms was so great
even among races who had witnessed them from a distance,
that the image of Assyria rose involuntarily before the
eyes of the Hebrew prophets as that of the avenger
destined to punish Israel for its excesses. 1 No doubt,
during the last few reigns its prosperity had waned and
its authority over distant provinces had gradually become
relaxed ; but now the old dynasty, worn out by its own
activity, had given place to a new one, and with this
change of rulers the tide of ill-fortune was, perhaps, at
last about to turn. At such a juncture, a successful cam
paign meant full compensation for all past disasters and
the attainment of a firmer position than had ever yet been
held ; whereas another reverse, following on those from
which the empire had already suffered, would render their
effect tenfold more deadly, and, by letting loose the hatred
of those whom fear alone still held in check, complete
its overthrow. It was essential, therefore, before entering
on the struggle, to weigh well every chance of victory,
and to take every precaution by which adverse contin
gencies might be, as far as possible, eliminated. The
army, encouraged by its success in the two preceding
1 Cf. Amos vi. 4.
220 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
campaigns, was in excellent fighting order, and ready to
march in any direction without a moment s hesitation,
confident in its ability to defeat the forces of Urartu as
it had defeated those of the Medes and Aramaeans ; hut
the precise point of attack needed careful consideration.
Tiglath-pileser must have been sorely tempted to take the
shortest route, challenge the enemy at his most vulnerable
point on the shores of Lake Van, and by a well-aimed
thrust deal him a blow from which he would never, or
only by slow degrees, recover. But this vital region of
Urartu, as we have already pointed out, presented the
greatest difficulties of access. The rampart of mountain
and forest by which it was protected on the Assyrian
side could only be traversed by means of a few byways,
along which bands of guerrillas could slip down easily
enough to the banks of the Tigris, but which were quite im
passable to any army in full marching order, hampered by
its horses, chariots, and baggage-train : compelled to thread
its way, with columns unduly extended, through the woods
and passes of an unknown country, which daily use had
long made familiar to its adversaries, it would have run
the risk of being cut to pieces man by man a dozen times
before it could hope to range its disciplined masses on
the field of battle. Former Assyrian invasions had, as a
general rule, taken an oblique course towards some of the
spurs of this formidable chain, and had endeavoured to
neutralise its defences by outflanking them, either by pro
ceeding westwards along the basins of the Supnat and
the Arzania, or eastwards through the countries bordering
on Lake Urumiah ; but even this method presented too
THE DEFEAT OF SHARDURIS
221
many difficulties and too little certainty of success to
warrant Tiglath-pileser in staking the reviving fortunes
of his empire on its adoption. He rightly argued that
Sharduris would be most easily vulnerable in those
provinces whose allegiance to him was of recent date,
and he resolved to seek out his foe in the heart of
VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS WHICH GUARD THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF URARTU. 1
Northern Syria. There, if anywhere, every chance was
in his favour and against the Armenian. The scene of
operations, while it had long been familiar to his own
generals and soldiers, was, on the other hand, entirely
new ground to those of the enemy ; the latter, though
unsurpassed in mountain warfare, lost much of their
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder. Taken at
Julamerk, near the junction of the mountain tracks leading from the Zab
valley to the south-eastern corner of the basin of Lake Van.
222 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
superiority on the plains, and could not, with all their
courage, make up for their lack of experience. Moreover,
it must not be forgotten that a victory on the banks of
the Afrin or the Orontes would have more important
results than a success gained in the neighbourhood of
the lakes or of Urartu. Not only would it free the Assyrians
from the only one of their enemies whom they had any
cause to fear, but it would also bring back the Hittite
kings to their allegiance, and restore the Assyrian suprem
acy over the wealthiest regions of Western Asia : they
would thus disable Urartu and reconquer Syria at one
and the same time. Tiglath-pileser, therefore, crossed
the Euphrates in the spring of 743 B.C., neither Matilu
of Agusi, Kushtashpi of Kummukh, nor their allies daring
to interfere with his progress. He thus advanced as far
as Arpad, and, in the first moment of surprise, the town
threw open its gates before him. 1 There, while he was
making ready to claim the homage of the surrounding
countries, he learnt that Sharduris was hastening up to
the rescue. He at once struck his camp and marched
out to meet his rival, coming up with him in the centre
of Kummukh, not far from the Euphrates, between
Different writers have given different versions of this campaign. Some
think that Arpad resisted, and that Tiglath-pileser was laying siege
to it, when the arrival of Sharduris compelled him to retire ; others prefer
to believe that Arpad was still in the hands of the Assyrians, and that
Tiglath-pileser used it as his base of operations. The formula ina Arpadda
in the Eponym Canon proves that Tiglath-pileser was certainly in Arpad :
since Arpad belonged to the Bit-Agusi, and they were the allies or vassals of
Sharduris, we must assume, as I have done here, that in the absence of the
Urartians they did not dare to resist the Assyrians, and opened their gates
to them.
SHARDURIS TAKES HIS FLIGHT
Kishtan and Khalpi. Sharduris was at the head of his
Syrian contingents, including the forces of Agusi, Melitene,
Kummukh, and Gurgum a formidable army, probahly
superior in point of numbers to that of the Assyrians.
The struggle lasted a whole day, and in the course of
it the two kings, catching sight of one another on the
field of battle, engaged in personal combat: at last,
towards evening, the chariots and cavalry of Urartu gave
way and the rout began. The victors made their way
into the camp at the heels of their flying enemies.
Sharduris abandoned his chariot, and could find nothing
but a mare to aid him in his flight ; he threw himself
upon her back, careless of the ridicule at that time
attached to the use of such a mount in Eastern countries, 1
fled at a gallop all through the night, hard pressed by
a large body of cavalry, crossed the hills of Sibak, and
with much difficulty reached the bridge over the Euphrates.
His pursuers drew rein on the river-bank, and Sharduris
re-entered his kingdom in safety. He had lost nearly
73,000 men, killed or taken prisoners, in addition to his
chariots, and nearly the whole train of horses, asses,
servants, and artisans attached to his army; he left his
tent still standing, and those who were first to enter
it laid hands on his furniture and effects, his royal
ornaments, his bed and portable throne, with its cushions
and bearing-poles, none of which had he found time to
take with him. Tiglath-pileser burnt them all on the
spot as a thank-offering to the gods who had so signally
1 So, too, later on, in the time of Sargon, Rusas, when, defeated, gets on
the back of a mare and rides off.
224 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
favoured him ; the bed alone he retained, in order that
he might dedicate it as a trophy to the goddess Ishtar
of Nineveh.
He had covered himself with glory, and might well
be proud of his achievement, yet the victory was in no
way a decisive one. The damage inflicted on the allies,
considerable though it was, had cost him dear : the forces
left to him were not sufficient to enable him to finish the
campaign, and extort oaths of allegiance from the Syrian
princes before they had recovered from the first shock
of defeat. He returned to Nineveh, and spent the whole
winter in reorganising his troops ; while his enemies, on
the other hand, made preparations to repel the attack
energetically. Sharduris could not yet venture outside
his mountain strongholds, but the hope of being rein
forced by him, as soon as he had got together another
army, encouraged the Syrian kings to remain faithful to
him in spite of his reverses. 1 Matilu of Agusi, unable
to carry the day against the Assyrians in the open field,
distributed his men among his towns, and resisted all
attacks with extraordinary persistence, confident that
Sharduris would at length come to help him, and with
this hope he held out for three years in his town of
Arpad. This protracted resistance need no longer astonish
us, now that we know, from observations made on the
spot, the marvellous skill displayed in the fortification
1 The part played by Sharduris in the events of the years which followed,
passing mention of which was made by Winckler (Gesch. Bab. und Ass., pp.
224, 225), have been fully dealt with by Belck and Lehmann (ChaldiscJie
Forschungen, in Verliandl. dcr Berliner antliropol. Gescllschaft, 1895, pp.
325-336).
METHOD OF BUILDING CITADELS 225
of these Asiatic towns. The ruins of Arpad have yet
to be explored, but those of Samalla have been excavated,
and show us the methods adopted for the defence of a
royal residence about the middle of the century with
which we are now concerned., The practice of building
citadels on a square or rectangular plan, which prevailed so
largely under the Egyptian rule, had gradually gone out of
fashion as the knowledge of engineering advanced, and
the use of mines and military engines had been more
fully developed among the nations of Western Asia. It
was found that the heavily fortified angles of the en
closing wall merely presented so many weak points, easy
to attack but difficult to defend, no matter how care
fully they might be protected by an accumulation of
obstacles. In the case of fortresses built on a plain,
where the plan was not modified by the nature of the
site, the enclosing wall was generally round or oval in
shape, and free from useless angles which might detract
from its strength. The walls were surmounted by battle
ments, and flanked at short intervals by round or square
towers, the tops of which rose but little, if indeed at
all, above the level of the curtain. In front of this
main wall was a second lower one, also furnished with
towers and battlements, which followed the outline of
the first all the way round at an interval of some yards,
thus acting as a sort of continuous screen to it. The
gates were little less than miniature citadels built into
each line of ramparts ; the gate of the outer wall was
often surrounded by lower outworks, two square bastions
and walls enclosing an outer quadrangle which had to
VOL. VII. Q
226 TIGLATH PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
PLAN OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF
ZINJIULI. 1
be crossed before the real gate was reached. When a
breach had been made in this double enclosure, though
the town itself might be taken,
the labours of the attacking
force were not yet over. In
the very centre of the place,
on a sort of artificial mound
or knoll, stood the royal castle,
and resistance on the part of
its garrison would make it
necessary for the enemy to
undertake a second siege no
less deadly and protracted than
the first. The keep of Zinjiiii
had only a single gate approached by a narrow causeway.
Within, it was
divided by walls
into five com
partments, each
of which was
independent of
the rest, and had
to be attacked
separately. Ma-
tilu knew he
could hoDP for
no mercy at the hands of the Assyrians ; he therefore
1 A reproduction by Faucher-Gudin of the first plan published by
Luschan.
2 Reproduction by Faucher-Gudin of the sketch published by Luschan.
OF THE GATES
z:XJIKLI
THE ROYAL CASTLE OP ZINJIRLI
22V
struggled on to the last, and when at length obliged to
surrender, in the year 740 B.C., he paid for his obstinacy by
the loss of his throne, and perhaps also of his life. 1 The
inaction of Sharduris clearly showed that he was no longer
BIRD ; S-EYK VIEW OF THE ROYAL CASTLE OF ZINJIRLI AS RESTORED. 2
in a position to protect his. allies, and that the backbone
of his kingdom was broken ; the kings who had put faith
in his help now gave him up, and ambassadors flocked
1 Our knowledge of these events is imperfect, our only information being
derived from the very scanty details given in the Eponym Canon ; up to the
present we can do no more than trace the general course of events.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plan published in Luschan.
228 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
in from all parts, even from those which were not as
yet directly threatened. Kushtashpi of Kummukh, Tark-
hulara of Gurgum, Pisiris of Carchemish, Uriaik of Kul,
came to Arpad in person to throw themselves at the
conqueror s feet, bringing with them offerings of gold and
silver, of lead and iron, of ivory, carved and in the tusk,
of purple, and of dyed or embroidered stuffs, and were
confirmed in the possession of their respective territories ;
Hiram II. of Tyre, moreover, and Rezin of Damascus
sent their greetings to him. 1 The Patina, who in days
gone by had threatened the fortunes of Assur-nazir-pal,
once again endeavoured to pose as the rivals of Assyria,
and Tutammu, sovereign of Unki, the most daring of
the minor states into which the Patina had been split
up, declined to take part in the demonstrations made
by his neighbours. Tiglath-pileser marched on Kinalua,
sacked it, built a fortress there, and left a governor and
garrison behind him : Agusi and Unki henceforth sank
down to the level of mere provinces, administered by
royal officers in the king s name, and permanently occupied
by Assyrian troops.
Northern Syria was thus again incorporated with the
empire, but Urartu, although deprived of the resources
with which Syria had supplied it, continued to give cause
for apprehension ; in 739 B.C., however, a large proportion
of the districts of Nairi, to which it still clung, was wrested
from it, and a fortress was built at Ulluba, with a view to
1 Annals of Tiglath-pileser III., where the statement at the close indicates
that Tiglath-pileser received the tributary kings of Syria " in Arpad," after
he had captured that city.
WARFARE BETWEEN THE PETTY KINGS 229
providing a stable base of operations at this point on the
northern frontier. A rebellion, instigated, it may be, by
his own agents, recalled Tiglath-pileser to the Amanus in
the year 738. The petty kings who shared with Assyria
the possession of the mountains and plains of the Afrin
could not succeed in living at peace with one another, and
every now and then their disputes broke out into open
warfare. Samalla was at that time subject to a family of
which the first members known to history, Qaral and
Panamrnu, shared Yaudi equally between them. Barzur,
son of Panammu I., had reigned there since about 765 B.C.,
and there can be little doubt that he must have passed
through the same vicissitudes as his neighbours ; faithful
to Urartu as long as Sharduris kept the upper hand, and
to Assyria as soon as Tiglath-pileser had humiliated Urartu,
he had been killed in a skirmish by some rival. His sou,
Panammu II., came to the throne merely as a nominee of
his suzerain, and seems to have always rendered him
faithful service; unfortunately, Yaudi was no longer
subject to the house of Panammu, but obeyed the rule of
a certain Azriyahu, who chafed at the presence of an alien
power. 1 Azriyahu took advantage of the events which kept
Tiglath-pileser fully occupied in the east, to form a
1 Azriyahu of Yaudi was identified with Azariah of Judah by G. Smith,
and this identification was for a long time accepted without question by
most Assyriologists. After a violent controversy it has finally been shown
that the Yaudi of Tiglath-pileser III. s inscriptions ought to be identified
with the Yadi or Yaudi of the Zinjirli inscriptions, and consequently that
Azriyahu was not king of Judah, but a king of Northern Syria. This view
appears to me to harmonise so well with what remains of the texts, and with
our knowledge of the events, that I have had no hesitation in adopting it.
230 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AXD THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
coalition in favour of himself among the states on the
banks of the Orontes, including some seventeen provinces,
dependencies of Hamath, and certain turbulent cities of
Northern Phoenicia, such as Byblos, Arka, Zimyra, Usnu,
Siannu, Coele- Syria, and even Hadrach itself. It is not
quite clear whether Damascus and the Hebrews took part
in this movement. Jeroboam had died in 740, after a
prosperous reign of forty-one years, and on his death Israel
seems to have fallen under a cloud ; six months later, his
son Zechariah was assassinated at Ibleam by Shallum, son
of Jabesh, and the prophecy of Amos, in which he declared
that the house of Jeroboam should fall beneath the sword
of Jahveh, 1 was fulfilled. Shallum himself reigned only
one month : two other competitors had presented them
selves immediately after his crime ; 2 the ablest of these,
Menahem, son of Gadi, had come from Tirzah to Samaria,
and, after suppressing his rivals, laid hands on the crown. 3
He must have made himself master of the kingdom little
by little, the success of his usurpation being entirely due
to the ruthless energy invariably and everywhere displayed
by him ; as, for instance, when Tappuakh (Tiphsah) refused
to open its gates at his summons, he broke into the town
and slaughtered its inhabitants. 4 All the defects of organi-
1 Amos vii. 9.
2 The nameless prophet, whose prediction is handed down to us in Zech.
ix.-xi., speaks of three shepherds cut off by Javeh in one month (xi. 8) ; two
of these were Zechariah and Shallum ; the third is not mentioned in the
Book of Kings.
3 2 Kings xiv. 23-29; xv. 8-15.
4 2 Kings xv. 16. The Massoretic text gives the name of the town as
Tipsah, but the Septuagint has Taphot, which led Thenius to suggest Tap
puakh as an emendation of Tipsah : Stade prefers the emendation Tirzah.
HOSEA S COMPLAINT 231
sation, all the sources of weakness, which for the last
half-century had been obscured by the glories of Jeroboam
II., now came to the surface, and defied all human efforts
to avert their consequences. " Then," as Hosea com
plains, " is the iniquity of Ephraim discovered, and the
wickedness of Samaria ; for they commit falsehood : and
the thief entereth in, and the troop of robbers spoileth
without. And they consider not in their hearts that I
(Jahveh) remember all their wickedness : now have their
own doings beset them about ; they are before My face.
They make the king glad with their wickedness and the
princes with their lies. They are all adulterers ; they are
as an oven heated by the baker. . . . They . . . devour
their judges ; all their kings are fallen ; there is none
among them that calleth unto Me." l In Judah, Azariah
(Uzziah) had at first shown some signs of ability ; he had
completed the conquest of Idumaea [Edom], and had
fortified Elath, 2 but he suddenly found himself stricken
with leprosy, and was obliged to hand over the reins of
government of Jotham. 3 His long life had been passed
uneventfully, and without any disturbance, under the pro
tection of Jeroboam ; but the very same defects which had
led to the ruin of Israel were at work also in Judah, and
Tappuakh was a town situated on the borders of Ephraim and Manasseh
(Josh. xvi. 8 ; xvii. 7, 8).
1 Eos. vii. 1-4, 7.
2 2 Kings xiv. 22 ; in 2 Chron. xxvi. 6-15 he is credited with the re
organisation of the army and of the Judsean fortress, in addition to cam
paigns against the Philistines and Arabs.
3 2 Kinqs xv. 5 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxvi. 19-21. Azariah is also abbreviated
\f y
into Uzziah.
232 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Menahem, in spite of his enfeebled condition, had nothing
to fear in this direction. The danger which menaced him
came rather from the east and the north, where Damascus,
aroused from its state of lethargy by Rezon [Eezin] II., had
again begun to strive after the hege
mony of Syria. 1 All these princes,
when they found that the ambition
TIGLATII-riLESER III. IX HIS STATE CHARIOT. 2
of Tiglath-pileser threatened to interfere with their own
intrigues, were naturally tempted to combine against him,
and were willing to postpone to a more convenient season
1 The name of this king, written Rezin in the Bible (2 Kings xv. 37 ;
xvi. 5, 6, 9), is given as Bazunu in the Assyrian texts ; he was therefore
Rez6n II. A passage in the Annals seems to indicate that Rezin s father was
prince of a city dependent on Damascus, not king of Damascus itself ; un
fortunately the text is too much mutilated to warrant us in forming any
definite conclusion on this point.
3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published by Layarcl.
THE WAR IX URARTU 233
the settlement of their own domestic quarrrels. But
Tiglath-pileser did not give them time for this ; he routed
Azriyahu, and laid waste Kullani, 1 the chief centre of
revolt, ravaged the valley of the Orontes, and carried off
the inhabitants of several towns, replacing them with
prisoners taken the year before during his campaign in
Nairi. After this feat the whole of Syria surrendered.
Rezin and Menahem were among the first to tender their
homage, and the latter paid a thousand talents of silver for
the firman which definitely confirmed his tenure of the
throne ; the princes of Tyre, Byblos, Hamath, Carchemish,
Milid, Tabal, and several others followed their example
even a certain Zabibi, queen of an Arab tribe, feeling com
pelled to send her gifts to the conqueror.
A sudden rising among the Aramaean tribes on the
borders of Elam obliged Tiglath-pileser to depart before he
had time to take full advantage of his opportunity. The
governors of Lullumi and Nairi promptly suppressed the
outbreak, and, collecting the most prominent of the rebels
together, sent them to the king in order that he might
distribute them throughout the cities of Syria : a colony
of 600 prisoners from the town of Amlati was established
in the territory of Darnaunu, 5400 from Dur were sent to
the fortresses of Unki, Kunalia, Khuzarra, Tai, Tarmanazi,
Kulmadara, Khatatirra, and Sagillu, while another 10,000
or so were scattered along the Phoenician seaboard and
among the adjacent mountains. The revolt had meanwhile
1 Kullani is the Calno or Calneh mentioned by Isaiah (x. 9) and Amos
(vi. 2), which lay somewhere between Arpad and Hamath ; the precise spot
is not yet known.
234 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
spread to the nations of Media, where it was, perhaps,
fomented by the agents of Urartu ; and for the second time
within seven years (737 B.C.) Tiglath-pileser trampled under
foot the countries over which he had ridden in triumph at the
beginning of his career the Bit-Kapsi, the Bit-Sangibuti,
the Bit-Tazzakki, the Bit-Zulazash, the Bit-Matti, and
Umliash. The people of Upash, among the Bit-Kapsi,
entrenched themselves on the slopes of Mount Abirus;
but he carried their entrenchments by storm. Ushuru
of Taddiruta and Burdadda of Nirutakta were seized with
alarm, and hid themselves in their mountain gorges;
but he climbed up in pursuit of them, drove them out
of their hiding-places, seized their possessions, and made
them prisoners. Similar treatment was meted out to all
those who proved refractory ; some he despoiled, others
he led captive, and " bursting upon the remainder like
the downpour of Eamman," permitted none of them to
escape. He raised trophies all along his line of march :
in Bau, a dependency of Bit-Ishtar, he set up a pointed
javelin dedicated to Ninip, on which he had engraved
a panegyric of the virtues of his master Assur ; near
Shilkhazi, a town founded, in bygone days, by the Baby
lonians, he erected a statue of himself, and a pillar
consecrated to Marduk in Til-ashshur. In the following
year he again attacked Urartu and occupied the mountain
province of Nal, which formed one of its outlying defences
(736). The year after he entered on the final struggle
with Sharduris, and led the flower of his forces right
under the walls of Dhuspas, 1 the enemy s capital.
The name is written Turuspas in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III.
THE ROCK AND CITADEL OF VAX 235
Dhuspas really consisted of two towns joined together.
One of these, extending over the plain by the banks of
the Alais and in the direction of the lake, was surrounded
by fertile gardens and villas, in which the inhabitants
spent the summer at their ease. It was protected by
an isolated mass of white and red nummulitic chalk, the
steep sides of which are seamed with fissures and tunnelled
THE KOCK AND CITADEL OF VAX AT THE PRESENT DAY. 1
with holes and caverns from top to bottom. The plateau
in which it terminates, and which rises to a height of
300 feet at its loftiest point, is divided into three main
terraces, each completely isolated from the other two,
and forming, should occasion arise, an independent fortress,
Ishpuinis, Menuas, Argistis, and Sharduris II. had laboured
from generation to generation to make this stronghold
impregnable, and they had succeeded in the attempt.
There can be little or no doubt, however, that this is merely a variant of the
name usually written as Tuspas, Tuspana, Dhuspana, the Thospia of classical
times ; properly speaking, it was the capital of Biainas.
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
236 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
The only access to it was from the western side, by a
narrow bridle-path, which almost overhung the precipice
as it gradually mounted to the summit. This path had
been partially levelled, and flanked with walls and towers
which commanded the approach throughout its whole
length; on the platforms at the summit a citadel had
been constructed, together with a palace, temples, and
ENTRANCE TO THE MODEKX CITADEL OF VAX FROM THE WESTWARD. 1
storehouses, in which was accumulated a sufficient supply
of arms and provisions to enable the garrison to tire out
the patience of any ordinary foe ; treason or an unusually
prolonged siege could only get the better of such a position.
Tiglath-pileser invested the citadel and ravaged its out
skirts without pity, hoping, no doubt, that he would
thus provoke the enemy into capitulating. Day after day,
Sharduris, perched in his lofty eyrie, saw his leafy gardens
laid bare under the hatchet, and his villages and the
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder
THE AMBITION OF URARTU FINALLY CHECKED 237
palaces of his nobles light up the country round as far
as the eye could reach: he did not flinch, however,
and when all had been laid waste, the Assyrians set up
a statue of their king before the principal gate of the
fortress, broke up their camp, and leisurely retired. They
put the country to fire and sword, destroyed its cities,
led away every man and beast they could find into cap
tivity, and then returned to Nineveh laden with plunder.
Urartu was still undaunted, and Sharduris remained king
as before ; but he was utterly spent, and his power had
sustained a blow from which it never recovered. He
had played against Assur with the empire of the whole
Asiatic world as the stake, and the dice had gone against
him : compelled to renounce his great ambitions from
henceforth, he sought merely to preserve his independence.
Since then, Armenia has more than once challenged
fortune, but always with the same result ; it fared no
better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch, than under
Sharduris in the time of the Assyrians ; it has been
within an ace of attaining the goal of its ambitions, then
at the last moment its strength has failed, and it has
been forced to retire worsted from the struggle. Its
position prevented it from exercising very wide influence ;
hidden away in a corner of Asia at the meeting-point
of three or four great mountain ranges, near the source
of four rivers, all flowing in different directions, it has
lacked that physical homogeneity without which no people,
however gifted, can hope to attain supremacy ; nature has
doomed it to remain, like Syria, split up into compart
ments of unequal size and strength, which give shelter
238 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
to half a score of independent principalities, each, one
of them perpetually jealous of the rest. From time to
time it is invested with a semblance of unity, but for
the most part it drags on an uneventful existence, dis
membered into as many fragments as there happen to be
powerful states around it, its only chance of complete
reunion lying in the possibility of one or other of these
attaining sufficient predominance to seize the share of
the others and absorb it.
The subjection of Urartu freed Assyria from, the only
rival which could at this moment have disputed its
supremacy on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris.
The other nations on its northern and eastern frontiers as
yet possessed no stability ; they might, in the course of
a passing outburst, cut an army to pieces or annex part
of a province, but they lacked strength to follow up their
advantage, and even their most successful raids were sure,
in the long run, to lead to terrible reprisals, in which their
gains were two or three times outweighed by their losses
in men and treasure. For nearly a hundred years Nineveh
found its hands free, and its rulers were able to concentrate
all their energy on two main points of the frontier to the
south-west on Syria and Egypt, to the south-east on
Chaldsea and Elam. ChaldaBa gave little trouble, but the
condition of Syria presented elements of danger. The
loyalty of its princes was more apparent than real ; they
had bowed their necks after the fall of Unki, but afterwards,
as the years rolled on without any seeming increase in the
power of Assyria, they again took courage and began once
more to quarrel among themselves. Menahern had died,
AHAZ PREPARES FOR A SIEGE 239
soon after he had paid his tribute (737 B.C.) ; his son
Pekahiah had been assassinated less than two years later
(736), 1 and his murderer, Pekah, son of Eemaliah, was
none too firmly seated on the throne. Anarchy was
triumphant throughout Israel ; so much so that Judah
seized the opportunity for throwing off the yoke it had
borne for well-nigh a hundred j^ears. Pekah, conscious of
his inability to suppress the rebellion, called in Eezin to
help him. The latter was already on the way when
Jotharn was laid with his fathers (736 B.C.), and it was
Ahaz, the son of Jotham, who had to bear the brunt of
the assault. He was barely twenty years old, a volatile,
presumptuous, and daring youth, who was not much
dismayed by his position. 2 Jotham had repaired the
fortifications of Jerusalem, which had been left in a
lamentable state ever since the damage done to them in
the reign of Amaziah ; 3 his successor now set to work to
provide the city with the supply of water indispensable
for its defence, 4 and, after repairing the ancient aqueducts,
1 2 Kings xv. 22-26. The chronology of the events which took place
between the death of Menahem and the fall of Samaria, as presented by the
biblical documents in the state in which they have been transmitted to us,
is radically inaccurate : following the example of most recent historians, I
have adhered exclusively to the data furnished by the Assyrian texts, merely
indicating in the notes the reasons which have led me to adopt certain dates
in preference to others.
2 2 Kings xv. 38, xvi. 1, 2. Ahaz is called laukhazi, i.e. Jehoahaz, in the
Assyrian texts, and this would seem to have been the original form of the
name.
3 The restoration of the walls of Jerusalem by Jotham is only mentioned
in 2 Chron. xxvii. 3.
4 We may deduce this from the words of Isaiah (vii. 3), where he repre
sents Ahaz " at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of
240 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
conceived the idea of constructing a fresh one in the spur
of Mount Sion, which extends southwards. As time
pressed, the work was begun simultaneously at each end ;
the workmen had made a wide detour underground,
probably in order to avoid the caves in which the kings
of Judah had been laid to rest ever since the time of
David, 1 and they were beginning to despair of ever uniting
the two sections of the tunnel, when they suddenly heard
one another through the wall of rock which divided them.
A few blows with the pick-axe opened a passage between
them, and an inscription on the wall adjoining the entrance
on the east side, the earliest Hebrew inscription we possess,
set forth the vicissitudes of the work for the benefit of
future generations. It was scarcely completed when Rezin,
who had joined forces with Pekah at Samaria, came up and
laid regular siege to Jerusalem. 2 The allies did not propose
to content themselves with exacting tribute from the young
king; they meant to dethrone him, and to set up in his
room a son of Tabeel, whom they had brought with them ;
they were nevertheless obliged to retire without effecting
a breach in his defences and leave the final assault till the
following campaign. Eezin, however, had done as much
injury as he could to Judah; he had laid waste both
the fuller s field." Ahaz had gone there to inspect the works intended for
the defence of the aqueduct.
This is the highly ingenious hypothesis put forward and defended with
much learning by Clermont-Ganneau, in order to account for the large curve
described by the tunnel.
! 2 Kings xvi. 5 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 5-8. It was on this occasion that
Isaiah delivered the prophecies which, after subsequent revision, furnished
the bulk of chaps, vi. 1 x. 4.
REZIN AND THE EDOMITES
241
mountain and plain, had taken Elath by storm and restored
it to the Edomites, 1 and had given a free hand to the
Philistines (735). 2 The whole position seemed so hopeless,
HEBREW INSCRIPTION ON THE SILOAJI AQUEDUCT. 3
that a section of the people began to propose surrendering
to the mercy of the Syrians. 4 Ahaz looked around him in
1 2 Kings xvi. 6, where the Massoretic text states that the Syrians
retained the town, while the Septuagint maintain that he restored it to the
Edomites.
2 Chron. xxviii. 18, where a list is given of the towns wrested from Judah
by the Philistines. The delight felt by the Philistines at the sight of
Judah s abasement seems to be referred to in the short prophecy of Isaiah
(xiv. 29-32), wrongly ascribed to the year of Ahaz s death.
3 A direct reproduction from a plaster cast now in Paris. The inscription
discovered by Schick, in 1880, has since been mutilated, and only the frag
ments are preserved in the museum at Constantinople. Some writers think
it was composed in the time of Hezekiah ; for my own part, I agree with
Stade in assigning it to the period of Ahaz.
4 This seems to be an obvious inference from the words of Isaiah (viii.
6) : " Forasmuch as this people hath refused the waters of Shiloah that go
softly, and lose courage because of Bczin and RemaliaKs son." [The R.V.
reads "rejoice in" Rezin, etc. TR.]
VOL. VII. B
242 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
search of some one on whom he might call for help. All
his immediate neighbours were hostile ; but behind them,
in the background, were two great powers who might be
inclined to listen to his appeal Egypt and
Assyria. Ever since the expedition of Sheshonq
into Asia, Egypt seemed to have lost all interest
in foreign politics. Osorkon had not inherited
the warlike propensities of his father, and his
son, Takeloti I., and his grandson, Osorkon II.,
followed his example. 1 These monarchs
regarded themselves as traditionary
suzerains of the country of Kharu, i.e.
1 The chronology of this period is still very uncertain,
and the stelse of the Serapseum, which enable us to fix
the order of the various reigns, yield no information as to
their length. Sheshonq I. did not reign much longer than
twenty-one years, which is his latest known date, and we
may take the reign of twenty-one years attributed to him
by Manetho as being substantially correct. The latest
dates we possess are as follows : Osorkon I., twelfth year,
and Takeloti I., sixth year or seventh year. Lastly, we
have a twenty-ninth year in the case of Osorkon II., with
a reference in the case of the twenty-eighth year to the
fifth year of a Takeloti whose first cartouche is missing,
and who perhaps died before his father and co-regent. In
Manetho, Osorkon I. is credited with a reign of fifteen
years, and his three next successors with a total of
twenty-five years between them, which is. manifestly
incorrect, since the monuments give twenty-nine years, or twenty-three at
the very least, if we take into account the double date in the case of the
first two of these kings. The wisest course seems to be to allow forty-five
years to Osorkon aud his two successors : if Sheshonq, as I believe, died in
924, the fifty years allotted to the next three Pharaohs would bring us down
to 880, and it is in this year that I am, for the present, inclined to place the
death of Osorkon II.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lanzone s statuette.
I5ROKZE
STATUETTE OF
OSORKON I. 2
PROSPERITY OF EGYPT
243
of Israel, Judah, Ammon, and Moab, and their authority
may perhaps have been recognised by the Philistines in the
main, but they seldom stirred from their own territory, and
contented themselves with protecting their frontiers against
Tin: CHEAT TEMPLE OF
BUBASTLS UUR1NU
NAVILLE S ExcAVATioss. 1
the customary depre
dations of the Libyan and
Asiatic nomads. 2 Under
...-. - r
their rule, Egypt enjoyed
fifty years of profound peace, which was spent in works of
public utility, especially in the Delta, where, thanks to their
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by .Neville.
1 Repressive measures of this kind are evidently referred to in passages
similar to those in which Osorkon II. boasts of having " overthrown beneath
his feet the Upper and Lower Lotanu," and speaks of the exploits of the
sons of Queen Kalamait against certain tribes whose name, though mutilated,
seems to have been Libyan in character.
244 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
efforts, Bubastis came to be one of the most splendid among
the cities of secondary importance. 1 Its temple, which had
been rebuilt by Eamses II. and decorated by the Rames-
sides, was in a sorry plight when the XXII nd dynasty came
into power. Sheshonq I. did little or nothing to it, but
Osorkon I. entirely remodelled it, and Osorkon II. added
several new halls, including, amongst others, one in which
he celebrated, in the twenty-second year of his reign, the
festival of his deification. A record of some of the
ceremonies observed has come down to us in the mural
paintings. There we see the king, in a chapel, consecrating
a statue of himself in accordance with the ritual in use
since the time of Amenothes III., and offering the figure
devout and earnest worship ; all the divinities of Egypt
have assembled to witness the enthronement of this new
member of their confraternity, and take part in the
sacrifices accompanying his consecration. This gathering
of the gods is balanced by a human festival, attended by
Nubians and Kushites, as well as by the courtiers and
populace. The proceedings terminated, apparently, with
certain funeral rites, the object being to make the
identification of Osorkon with Osiris complete. The
Egyptian deities served in a double capacity, as gods of
the dead as well as of the living, and no exception could
be made in favour of the deified Osorkon ; while yet living
he became an Osiris, and his double was supposed to
animate those prophetic statues in which he appeared as
a mummy no less than those which represented him as
1 All our knowledge of the history of the temple of Bubastis dates from
Naville s excavations.
ENDOWMENT OF THE TEMPLES
245
still alive. Another temple of small size, also dedicated
to Bastit or Pasht, which had been built in the time of
Ramses II., was enlarged by Osorkon L, and richly en-
GATE OF THE FESTIVAL HALL AT BUBASTIS. 1
dowed with workshops, lands, cattle, slaves, and precious
metals : Tumu-Khopri of Heliopolis, to mention but one of
the deities worshipped there, received offerings of gold in
value by weight 120,000, and silver ingots worth 12,000. 2
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a restoration by Naville.
This is the small temple afterwards described by Herodotus as being
dedicated to Hermes.
246 TIGLATH PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
A country which could afford to indulge in extravagances
of this nature must have been in a flourishing condition,
and everything goes to prove that Egypt prospered under
the rule of the early Bubastite kings.
The very same causes, however, which had ruined the
Ramessides and the Tanites were now openly compassing
the downfall of the Bubastite dynasty. The military
feudalism from which it had sprung, suppressed for a time
by Sheshonq I., developed almost unchecked under his
successors. They had thought to break it up and turn it
to their own advantage, by transferring the more important
religious functions and the principal fiefs to their own sons
or nephews. They governed Memphis through the high
priests of Phtah ; a prince of the blood represented them
at Khmunu, 1 another at Khninsu 2 (Heracleopolis), and
others in various cities of the Delta, each of them being
at the head of several thousand Mashauasha, or Libyan
soldiers on whose fidelity they could entirely rely. Thebes
alone had managed to exclude these representatives of the
ruling dynasty, and its princes, guided in this particular by
the popular prejudice, persistently refused to admit into
their bodyguard any but the long-tried Mazaiu. Moreover,
Thebes lost no opportunity of proving itself to be still
the most turbulent of the baronies. Its territory had
suffered no diminution since the time of Hrihor, and half
1 E.g. Namroti, under Pionkhi-Miamun, whose rights were such that he
adopted the protocol of the Pharaohs.
2 Stele 1959 of the Serapseum contains the names of five successive
princes of this city, the first of whom was Namrdti, son of Osorkon II., and
high priest of Thebes ; a member of the same family, named Pefzaabastit,
had taken cartouches under Osorkon III. of the XXIII rd dynasty.
POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF THEBES 247
of Upper Egypt, from Elephantine to Siut, acknowledged
its sway. 1 Through all the changes of dynasty its political
constitution had remained unaltered ; Amon still ruled
there supreme as ever, and nothing was done until he had
been formally consulted in accordance with ancient usage.
Auputi, in spite of his being a son of Sheshonq, was com
pelled to adopt the title of high priest in order to rule
in peace, and had married some daughter or niece of the
last of the Painotmu. After his death, good care was
taken to prevent the pontificate from passing to one of
his children, as this would have re-established a Theban
dynasty which might have soon proved hostile to that of
Bubastis. To avoid this, Osorkon I. made over the office
and fief to his own son Sheshonq. The latter, after a time,
thought he was sufficiently powerful to follow the example
of Painotmu and adopt the royal cartouches ; but, with
all his ambition, he too failed to secure the succession
to the male line of his descendants, for Osorkon II.
appointed his own son Namrdti, already prince of Khninsu,
to succeed him. The amalgamation of these two posts
invested the person on whom they were conferred with
almost regal power; Khninsu was, indeed, as we know,
the natural rampart of Memphis and Lower Egypt against
invasion from the south, and its possessor was in a position
1 It is evident that this was so from the first steps taken by Pionkhi-
Miamun s generals : they meet the army and fleet of Tafnakhti and the
princes of the north right under the walls of Hermopolis, but say nothing of
any feudal princes of the south. Their silence is explained if we assume
that Thebes, being a dependency of Ethiopia, retained at that date, i.e. in
the time of the XXIII rd dynasty, the same or nearly the same boundaries
which it had won for itself under the XXI st .
248 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
to control the fate of the empire almost as he pleased.
Osorkon must have had weighty reasons for taking a step
which placed him practically at the mercy of his son, and,
indeed, events proved that but little reliance could be
placed on the loyalty of the Thebans, and that energetic
measures were imperative to keep them in the path of
duty or lead them back to it. The decadence of the
ancient capital had sadly increased since the downfall of
SMALL 1JKOXZE SPHINX OK SIAMUS. 1
the descendants of Hrihor. The few public works which
they had undertaken, and which Sheshonq I. encouraged
to the best of his ability, had been suspended owing to
want of money, and the craftsmen who had depended on
them for support were suffering from poverty : the makers
of small articles of a religious or funerary character, carvers
of wood or stone, joiners, painters of mummy-cases, and
workers in bronze, alone managed to eke out a bare liveli
hood, thanks to commissions still given to them by officials
attached to the temples. Theban art, which in its best
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original now in the Louvre.
DEGENERATION OF THEBAN ART
249
period had excelled in planning its works on a gigantic
scale, now gladly devoted itself to the production of mere
knick-knacks, in place of the colossal figures of earlier days.
We have statuettes some twelve or fifteen inches high,
crudely coloured, wooden stelae, shapeless ushabti redeemed
from ugliness by a coating of superb blue enamel, and,
RUINS OF THE TEMPLE AT KIIMXSU AFTER NAVILLE S EXCAVATIONS. 1
above all, those miniature sphinxes representing queens or
kings, which present with two human arms either a table
of offerings or a salver decorated with cartouches. The
starving populace, its interests and vanity alike mortified
by the accession of a northern dynasty, refused to accept
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Naville. The illustration
shows what now remains of the portions of the teniple rebuilt in the time of
Ramses II.
250 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
the decay of its fortunes with resignation, and this spirit
of discontent was secretly fomented by the priests or by
members of the numerous families which boasted of their
descent from the Eamessides. Although hereditary claims
to the throne and the pontificate had died out or lost their
force in the male line, they were still persistently urged
by the women : consecrated from their birth to the service
of Amon, and originally reserved to sing his praises or
share his nuptial couch, those of them who married
transmitted to their children, and more especially to their
daughters, the divine germ which qualified them for the
throne. They and their followers never ceased to look
for the day when the national deity should shake off his
apathy, and, becoming the champion of their cause against
the Bubastite or Tanite usurpers, restore their city to the
rank and splendour from which it had fallen. Namroti
married one of these Theban princesses, and thus contrived
to ward off the danger of revolt during his lifetime ; but
on his death or disappearance an insurrection broke out.
Sheshonq II. had succeeded Osorkon II., and he, in his
turn, was followed by Takeloti II. Takeloti chose Kala-
mait, daughter of Namroti, as his lawful wife, formally
recognised her as queen, and set up numerous statues and
votive monuments in her honour. But all in vain : this
concession failed to conciliate the rebellious, and the whole
Thebaid rose against him to a man. In the twelfth year
of his reign he entrusted the task of putting down the
revolt to his son Osorkon, at the same time conferring
upon him the office of high priest. It took several years
to repress the rising ; defeated in the eleventh year, the
THE XXIII RD TANITE DYNASTY
rebels still held the field in the fifteenth year of the king,
and it was not till some time after, between the fifteenth
and twenty-second year of Takeloti II., that they finally
laid down their arms. 1 At the end of this straggle the
king s power was quite exhausted, while that of the
feudal magnates had proportionately increased. Before
long, Egypt was split up into a number of petty states,
some of them containing but a few towns, while others,
following the example of Thebes, boldly annexed several
adjacent nomes. A last remnant of respect for the
traditional monarchy kept them from entirely repudiating
the authority of Pharaoh. They still kept up an outward
show of submission to his rule; they paid him military
service when called upon, and appealed to him as umpire
in their disputes, without, however, always accepting his
rulings, and when they actually came to blows among
themselves, were content to exercise their right of private
warfare under his direction. 2 The royal domain gradually
became narrowed down to the Memphite nome and the
private appanages of the reigning house, and soon it no
longer yielded the sums necessary for the due performance
of costly religious ceremonies, such as the enthronement
or burial of an Apis. The pomp and luxury usually dis
played on such occasions grew less and less under the
successors of Takeloti II., Sheshonq III., Pimi, and
Sheshonq IV. 3 When the last of these passed away after
1 The story of these events is told in several greatly mutilated inscriptions
to be found at Karnak on the outer surface of the south wall of the Hall of
Columns.
2 It is evident that this was so, from a romance discovered by Krall.
3 One need only go to the Louvre and compare the Apis stelse erected
252 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
an inglorious reign of at least thirty-seven years, the
prestige of his race had so completely declined that the
country would have no more of it ; the sceptre passed into
the hands of another dynasty, this time of Tanite origin. 1
It was probably a younger branch of the Bubastite family
allied to the Earnessides and Theban Pallacides. Petu-
bastis, the first of the line, secured recognition in Thebes, 2
and throughout the rest of Egypt as well, but his influence
was little greater than that of his predecessors ; as in the
past, the real power was in the hands of the high priests.
One of them, Auiti by name, even went so far, in the
fourteenth or fifteenth year, as to declare himself king, and
during this period with those engraved in the time of the XXVI th dynasty,
in order to realise the low ebb to which the later kings of the XXII nd dynasty
had fallen : the fact that the chapel and monuments were built under their
direction shows that they were still masters of Memphis. We have no
authentic date for Sheshonq II., and the twenty-ninth year is the latest
known in the case of Takeloti II., but we know that Sheshonq III. reigned
rifty-two years, and, after two years of Pimi, we find a reference to the
thirty -seventh year of Sheshonq IV. If we allow a round century for these
last kings we are not likely to be far out : this would place the close of the
Bubastite dynasty somewhere about 780 B.C.
1 The following list gives the names of the Pharaohs of the XX 1 1" 1
dynasty in so far as they have been ascertained up to the present :
I. SHASHANQU I. MARIAMANU, UAZAKHPiRRi-soTpuNiRt.
II. UASARKANU I. MARIAMANU, SAKHMAKHPIRRI-SOTPUNIR!.
III. TAKELOTI I. si-Islx MARIAMANU, USIRMAR!-SOTPUNIAMANU.
IV. UASARKANU II. SI-BASTIT MARIAMANU, UsiRMARi-soiPUNiAMANU.
V. SHASHANQU II. MARIAMANU, SAKHMAKHPIRR!-SOTPUNIAMANU.
VI. TAKEL6TI II. SI-IstT MARIAMANU, UAZAKHPIRRl-SOTPUNIRf.
VII. SHASHANQU III. si-BASirr MARIAMANU, UsiRMARl-soiPUNiRt.
VIII. PAIM! MARIAMANU, USIRMARI-SOTPUNIAMANU.
IX. SHASHANQU IV. MARIAMANU, AKHPIRR!.
2 This fact has recently been placed beyond doubt by inscriptions found
on the quay at Karnak near the water-marks of the Nile.
HIGH-PRIESTS WITH PRETENSIONS TO ROYALTY 253
had his cartouches inscribed on official documents side by
side with those of the Tanite monarch. 1 His kingship died
with him, just as that of Painotmu had done in similar
circumstances, and two years later we find his successor,
Harsiisit, a mere high priest with
out pretensions to royalty. Doubt
less his was not an isolated case ;
all the grandees who happened to
be nearly related either to the
dethroned or to the reigning houses
acted in like manner, and for the
first time for many years Egypt
acknowledged the simultaneous
sway of more than one legitimate
Pharaoh. Matters became still
worse under Osorkon III. ; although
he, too, introduced a daughter of
Amon into his harem, this alliance
failed to give him any hold over
Thebes, and even the Seven Nomes
and the Delta were split up to such
an extent that at one time they
included something like a score of
independent principalities, three of which, Hermopolis,
1 No. 26 of Legrain s inscriptions tells us the height of the Nile in the
sixteenth year of Petubastit, which was also the second year of King Auiti.
Seeing that Auiti s name occurs in the place occupied by that of the high
priest of Thebes in other inscriptions of the same king, I consider it probable
that he was reigning in Thebes itself, and that he was a high priest who had
become king in the same way as Painotmu under the XXI st dynasty.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a small door now in the Louvre.
KING PETUBASTIS AT
PRAYER. 2
254 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Heracleopolis, and Tentramu, were administered by kings
who boasted cartouches similar to those of Tanis and
Bubastis.
About 740 B.C. there appeared in the midst of these
turbulent and extortionate nobles a man who, by sheer
force of energy and talent, easily outstripped all com
petitors. Tafnakhti was a chief of obscure origin, whose
hereditary rights extended merely over the village of
Nutirit and the outskirts of Sebennytos. One or two
victories gained over his nearest neighbours encouraged
him to widen the sphere of his operations. He first of
all laid hands on those nomes of the Delta which extended
to the west of the principal arm of the Nile, the Saite,
Atmibite, Libyan, and Memphite nomes ; these he
administered through officers under his own immediate
control ; then, leaving untouched the eastern provinces,
over which Osorkon III. exercised a make-shift, easy
going rule, he made his way up the river. Maitumu and
the Fayum accepted him as their suzerain, but Khninsu
and its king, Pefzaabastit, faithful to their allegiance, 1
offered strenuous resistance. He then crossed over to
the right bank, and received the homage of Heliopolis
and Pnebtepahe ; he put the inhabitants of Uabu to
ransom, established a close blockade of Khninsu, and
persuaded Namroti, King of Khmunu, to take an oath
of allegiance. At length, those petty kings and princes
of the Said and the Delta who still remained unconquered
called upon Ethiopia, the only power capable of holding
1 Pefzaabastit, King of Heracleopolis, seems to be identical with the
Pharaoh Pefzabastit of the Berlin sarcophagus.
THE ETHIOPIANS IN EGYPT
255
its ground against him, for help. The "vile Kaushu
(Gush) probably rose to be an independent state about
the time when Sheshonq and the Bubastite kings came
into power. Peopled by Theban settlers, and governed
by the civil and religious code of Thebes, the provinces
which lay between the cataract of Hannek and the
VIEW OF A FAKT OF THE RUINS OF NAP ATA. 1
confluence of the two Niles soon became a second
Thebaid, more barren and less wealthy than the first, but
no less tied to the traditions of the past. Napata, its
capital, lay in the plain at the foot of a sandstone cliff,
which rose perpendicularly to a height of nearly two
hundred feet, its summit, when viewed from the south
west, presenting an accidental resemblance to a human
1 Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph published in
Cailliaucl.
256 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
profile. 1 This was the Du-uabu, or Sacred Mount, in
the heart of which the god was supposed to have his
dwelling ; the ruins of several temples can still be seen
near the western extremity of the hill, the finest of them
being dedicated to a local Amon-ra. This Amon was
GEBEL-BARKAL, THE SACRED MOUNTAIN OF NAPATA. J
a replica of the Theban Amon on a smaller scale, and
was associated with the same companions as his prototype,
Maut, his consort, and Khonsu, his son. He owed his
origin to the same religious concepts, and was the central
figure of a similar myth, the only difference being that
1 The natives believe this profile to have been cut by human hands an
error which has been shared by more than one modern traveller.
2 Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph in Cailliaude
THE GOD AMOX-RA
257
he was represented in composite shape, with a ram s head ;
perhaps a survival from some earlier indigenous deity,
such as Didun, for instance, who had been previously
RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF AMON AT NAPATA. 1
worshipped in those parts ; his priests lived in accordance
with the rules of the Theban hierarchy. We can readily
1 Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph published by
Cailliaud.
VOL. VII.
S
258 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
believe that when Hrihor extorted the title of " Royal
Son of Kaushu from the weaklings who occupied the
throne at the close of the Bamesside dynasty, he took
care to install one of the members of his family as high
priest at Napata, and from henceforward had the whole
country at his bidding. Subsequently, when Patnotmu II.
was succeeded by Auputi at Thebes, it seems that the
Ethiopian priests refused to ratify his election. Whether
they conferred the supreme power on one of their own
FLAX OF THE TE3IPLE OF A3ION AT NAPATA. 1
number, or whether some son of Painotmu, flying from
the Bubastite kings, arrived at the right moment to
provide them with a master, is not quite clear. The kings
of Ethiopia, priests from the first, never lost their
sacerdotal character. They continued to be men of
God, and as such it was necessary that they should be
chosen by the god himself. On the death of a sovereign,
Amon at once became regent in the person of his prophet,
and continued to act until the funeral rites were celebrated.
As soon as these ceremonies were completed, the army
and the people collected at the foot of the Sacred Mount ;
the delegates of the various orders of the state were
1 Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from the plan drawn up and published
by Cailliaud.
THE DIVINELY APPOINTED MONARCH 259
*
led into the sanctuary, and then, in their presence, all
the males of the royal family "the king s brothers," as
they were called were paraded before the statue of the
god ; he on whom the god laid his hand as he passed was
considered to be the chosen one of Amon, and consecrated
king without delay. 1 As may be readily imagined, the
new monarch thus appointed by divine dictation was
completely under the control of the priests, and before
long, if he failed to prove sufficiently tractable, they
claimed the right to dispense with him altogether ; they
sent him an order to commit suicide, and he obeyed. The
boundaries of this theocratic state varied at different
epochs ; originally it was confined to the region between
the First Cataract and the mouth of the Blue Nile. The
bulk of the population consisted of settlers of Egyptian
extraction and Egyptianised natives ; but isolated, as
they were, from Egypt proper by the rupture of the
political ties which had bound them to the metropolis,
they ceased to receive fresh reinforcements from the
northern part of the valley as they had formerly done,
and daily became more closely identified with the races
of various origin which roamed through the deserts of
Libya or Arabia. This constant infiltration of free or
slavish Bedawin blood and the large number of black
women found in the harems of the rich, and even in
the huts of the common people, quickly impaired the
1 This is the ritual described in the Stele of the Enthronement. Perhaps
it was already in use at Thebes under the XXI st and XXII nd dynasties, at
the election of the high priest, whether he happened to be a king or not ; at
any rate, a story of the Ptolemaic period told by Synesius in TJie Egyptian
seems to point to this conclusion.
200 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
purity of the race, even among the upper classes of the
nation, and the type came to resemble that of the negro
tribes of Equatorial Africa. 1
The language fared no better
in the face of this invasion,
and the written character soon
became as corrupt as the
language ; words foreign to the
Egyptian vocabulary, incor
rect expressions, and barbarous
errors in syntax were multi
plied without stint. The taste
for art decayed, and technical
ability began to deteriorate,
the moral and intellectual standard declined, and the mass
of the people showed signs
of relapsing into barbarism :
the leaders of the aristocracy
and the scribes alone preserved
almost intact their inheritance
from an older civilisation.
Egypt still attracted them :
they looked upon it as their
rightful possession, torn from
them by alien usurpers in de-
NEGKO AND ETHIOPIAN TYPE. 2 fiance of all sense of right,
A NEARLY PURE ETHIOPIAN TYPE. 2
1 Taharqa furnishes us with a striking example of this degeneration of
the Egyptian type. His face shows the characteristic features of the black
race, both on the Egyptian statue as well as on the Assyrian stele of Sinjirli.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
HEREDITARY RIGHTS OF THE SOVEREIGN 261
and they never ceased to hope that some day, when the god
saw fit, they would win back their heritage. Were not
their kings of the posterity of Sibu, the true representatives
of the Ramessides and the solar race, compared with
whom the northern Pharaohs, even those whose mothers
ranked as " worshippers of Amon, were but mere
mushroom kings ? Thebes admitted the validity of their
claims : it looked to them for help, and the revolts
by which it had been torn ever since the reign of
Osorkon II. were, perhaps, instigated by the partisans
of Ethiopia. In the time of Petubastis its high priests,
Harsiisit and Takeloti, were still connected with the
Tanites ; after that it placed itself under the immediate
orders of Ethiopia, and the pontificate disappeared. The
accession of a sovereign who was himself invested by
hereditary right with the functions and title of high priest
of Amon henceforth rendered the existence of such an
office superfluous at Thebes: it would almost have meant
an imperium in imperio. The administration of religious,
and perhaps also of political, affairs was, therefore, handed
over to the deputy prophet, and this change still further
enhanced the importance of the " female worshippers
of the god." In the absence of the king, who had his
capital at Napata, they remained the sole representatives
of legitimate authority in the Thebaid : the chief among
them soon came to be regarded as a veritable Lady of
Thebes, and, subject to the god, mistress of the city and its
territory.
It is not quite clear whether it was Pionkhi Miamun
or one of his immediate predecessors who took possession
262 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
of the city. The nomes dependent on Amon followed
the example of the capital, and the whole Theban territory
as far as Siut had been occupied by Ethiopian troops,
when in the twenty-
first year of the king s
reign the princes of
the Delta and Middle
Egypt appealed to
the court of Napata
for help. Even had
they not begged it to
do so, it would have
been compelled before
long to intervene, for
Tafnakhtiwas already
on his way to attack
it ; Pionkhi charged
Luamarsakni and Pu-
arama, the generals
he had already sta
tioned in the Thebaid,
to hold Tafnakhti in
check, till he was
able to get together
the remainder of his
army and descend
the Nile to support
them. Their instructions were to spare none of the
rebellious towns, but to "capture their men and their
beasts, and their ships on the river; to allow none of
Jtunw.fielwpolis
of the
MempHite
ZMMa^^f Ti&z \*
>*~ *., ,.v": ^V ta gr := ?> ~x <-
", l/y /."_.. " -* / ^\ I
CrocodHapm
j^wtffflnwwj r i
aJJipirri,
\jsiif]Tb r San&s ,IircijcLc(n}o H&
MIDDLE EGYPT
during the Campaign
Terebinth &"*
PIONKHI S GENERALS IN MIDDLE EGYPT
263
the fellaheen to go out into the fields, nor any labourer
to his labour, but to attack Herniopolis and harass it
daily." They followed out these orders, though, it would
seem, without result, until the reinforcements from Nubia
came up : their movements then became more actively
offensive, and falling on Tafnakhti s ships, which were
making for Thebes
heavily laden with
men and stores,
they sunk several
of them. Anxious
to profit by this
first success, they
made straight for
Heracleopolis with
a view to reliev-
RUIXS OF OXYBRHYXCHOS AXD THE MODERN TOWN OF BAHXESA. 1
ing it. Taihakhti, accompanied by the two kings Namroti
and Auputi, was directing the siege in person; he had
under his command, in addition to contingents from
Busiris, Mendes, Thoth, and PharbaBthos, all the vassals
of Osorkon III., the successor of Petubastis and titular
Pharaoh of the whole country. The Ethiopian fleet
engaged the Egyptian ships at the end of the island of
Heracleopolis, near the mouth of the canal leading from
1 Drawn by Boudier, from an engraving in Vivant Denon.
264 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
the Nile to the Bahr-Yusuf. 1 Tafuakhti was defeated,
and the remnants of his squadron took refuge in Pipuga
under cover of his land forces. 2 At dawn, the next day,
the Ethiopians disembarked and gave battle. The struggle
was long and fierce, but indecisive. Luamarsakni and
Puarama claimed the victory, but were obliged to effect
a retreat on the day following their so-called success, and
when they dropped anchor in the harbour of Hermopolis,
they found that Namroti had made his way back to the
city by land and forestalled them. Powerless to hold
the field without support, he collected all the men and
cattle he could lay hands on, and awaited the progress
of events behind his ramparts. The Ethiopians invested
the town, and wrote to inform Pionkhi of what they had
done not, however, without some misgiving as to the
reception which awaited their despatches. And sure
enough, " His Majesty became enraged thereat, even as
a panther : If they have allowed a remnant of the warriors
of the north to remain, if they have let one of them
escape to tell of the fight, if they make him not to die
in their slaughter, then by my life, by the love of Ka, by
the praise of Amon for me, I will myself go down and
overthrow that which Tafnakhti hath done, 3 I will compel
1 The ancient geographers looked upon the nome of Heracleopolis as a
large island, its southern boundary being, probably, the canal of Harabshent :
the end of the island, which the Egyptians called "the forepart of Khninsu,"
was probably Harabshent and its environs.
2 Pi-puga is probably El-Foka, on the Nile, to the north of Harabshent.
3 The king does not mention his adversary by name in the text ; he is
content to indicate him by a pronoun in the third person " that which lie
hath done . . . then will I make him taste," etc.
UNAPPEASABLE WRATH OF THE KING 265
him to give up war for ever ! Therefore, after celebrating
the festivals of the New Year, when I shall have sacrificed
to Amon of [Napata], my father, in his excellent festival
wherein he appears in his procession of the New Year,
when he shall have sent ine in peace to look upon the
[Theban] Amon in his festivals at Thebes, and when I
shall have carried his image in procession to Luxor, in
the festival celebrated in his honour among the festivals
of Thebes, on the night of the feast appointed in the
Thebaid, established by Ea at the creation, when I have
led him in the procession and brought him unto his throne,
on the day for introducing the god, even the second of
Athyr, then will I make the enemy taste the savour of
my claws. The generals did their very utmost to
appease their master s wrath before he appeared on the
scene. They told off a force to keep watch over Hermo-
polis while they themselves marched against the nome
of Uabu ; they took Oxyrrhynchos by storm, with " the
fury of a water-spout," and informed the king of this
achievement; but "his heart was not softened thereby."
They crossed over to the right bank ; they crushed the
people of the north under the walls of Tatehni, 1 they
forced the walls of the town with the battering-ram, and
killed many of the inhabitants, amongst others a son of
Tafnakhti, whose body they sent to the king ; but " his
heart was not softened thereby." They then pushed on
as far as Halt Bonn 2 and sacked it, but still failed to
1 The modern Tehneh, on the right bank of the Nile, a little below
Minieh.
2 Hait-Bonu, or Habonu, is the Hipponon of the Greco-Roman geographers.
26b TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
regain favour. On the 9th of Thoth, Pionkhi came down
to Thebes, and after hasty attendance at the services
to Arnon, went to rejoin the vanguard of his army under
the walls of Hermopolis. "No sooner had his Majesty
quitted the cabin of his ship, than the horses were
harnessed and the charioteers in their places ; the fear
of his Majesty spread even to the Nomads of Asia, and
all hearts trembled before him."
Pionkhi drove back the enemy
behind their walls, pitched his
tent to the south-west of the
city, threw up
earth - works,
and built ter
races so as to
place his bow
men and sling-
ers on a level
with the bat
tlements of its
towers. At the
end of three days, Namroti, finding himself hard pressed
on every side, resolved to surrender. He sent envoys to
Pionkhi laden with rich presents, and despatched Queen
Nsitentmahit after them, to beg for mercy from the women
who had accompanied the Ethiopian, his wives, concu
bines, daughters, or royal sisters. Their entreaties were
graciously received, and Namroti ventured to come in
KING NAilROTI LEADING A HOUSE TO riONKIH. 1
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an impression of the stele in the Gizeh
Museum.
PIONKHI VISITS THE TEMPLE OP THOTH
267
person, leading a horse with his right hand and shaking
in his left a sistrum of gold and lapis-lazuli ; he knelt
down and presented with his salutations the long train
of gifts which had gone before him. Pionkhi visited the
temple of Thoth, and there, amidst the acclamations of
soldiers and priests, offered up the customary sacrifices.
He then made his way to the palace and inspected its
EUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF THOTII, AT HERMOPOLIS THE GREAT. 1
courts, chambers, treasury, and storehouses, and reviewed
the whole household, including even Namroti s own wives
and daughters, though " he turned not his face towards
any one of them." He next went on to the stud-farms,
and was indignant to find that the horses had suffered
from hunger during the siege. Thoroughbreds were
probably somewhat scarce at Napata, and he had, no
doubt, reckoned on obtaining new blood and a complete
1 Drawn by Boudier, from an engraving in Vivant Denoii. The portico
was destroyed about 1820 by the engineers who constructed the sugar
refinery at Rodah, and now only a few shapeless fragments of it remain.
2G8 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
relay of chargers from the Egyptian stables ; his chances
of doing so seemed likely to vanish if brood mares and
stallions had everywhere been debilitated by the hardships
of war. He reserved a part of the booty for himself,
handed over the balance to the priests of Amon at Karnak,
and also, before he left, received tribute from Heracleopolis.
Pefzaabastit brought him horses, the pick of his stables,
slaves laden with gold and silver and precious stones ;
then burying his face in the dust, he offered worship to
his liberator : " Hell had swallowed me up, I was plunged
into darkness, and lo, now a light has been given me.
Since I have found no man to love me in the day of
adversity, or to stand by me in the day of battle, save
only thee, victorious king, who hast torn away the
night from above me, I will be thy servant, I and all my
house, and Khninsu shall pay tribute into thy treasury.
For, as to thee, thou art Harmakhis, chief of the imperish
able stars, thou art king, even as he is king, and even
as he doth not destroy himself, neither shalt thou destroy
thyself!"
The downfall of Khmunu led all who might still have
shown resistance in Middle Egypt to lay down their arms
also. The fortress of Pisakhmakhpirri l dominated the
gorges of Lahunit, and thus commanded the entrance to
the Fayum ; but the son of Tafnakhti agreed to surrender
it, provided he were allowed to march out with the honours
1 This fortress, which bears a name compounded with that of Osorkon I. ,
must have been rebuilt by that monarch on the site of an earlier fort ; the
new name remained in use under the XXII ua and XXIII rd dynasties, after
which the old one reappears. It is Illahun, where Petrie discovered the
remains of a nourishing town of the Bubastite epoch.
THE SUBMISSION OF KHMUNU 269
of war. Shortly after, Maituinu threw open its gates, and
its example was followed by Titaui ; at Maituinu there was
noting among the Egyptians in the streets, one party
wishing to hold out, the other to surrender, hut in the end
the latter had their way. 1 Pionkhi discharged his priestly
duties wherever he went, and received the local taxes, always
being careful to reserve a tenth for the treasury of Ainon-
Ra ; the fact that his army was kept under rigid control,
and that he showed great clemency to the vanquished,
helped largely to conciliate those who were not bound by
close ties of interest to the cause of Tafnakhti. On reaching
Memphis, Pionkhi at once had recourse to the persuasive
methods which had hitherto served him so well, and
entered into negotiations with the garrison. " Shut not
yourselves up in forts, and fight not against the Upper
Country, 2 for Shu the god of creation, when I enter, he
entereth, and when I go out, he goeth out, and none may
repel my attacks. I will present offerings to Phtah and to
the divinities of the White Wall, I will honour Sokari in
his mysterious coffer, I will contemplate Risanbuf, 3 then I
1 Maritumu, or Maitumu, is the modern Meidum, associated in the
inscription with the characteristic epithet, Pisokari-Nibu-Suazu, or " temple
of Sokari, master of the transfiguration." Titaui lay exactly on the frontier
between Upper and Lower Egypt hence its name, which signifies "com
manding the two regions ; " it was in the Memphite nome, and Brugsch
identifies it with the Greek city of Acanthos, near Dahshur, but this position
appears to me to be too close to Memphis and too far from the boundary of
the nome ; I should prefer to place Titaui at Kafr el-Ayat or thereabouts.
2 I.e. against Pionkhi, who was master of the Upper Country, that is, of
Thebes and Ethiopia, and the forces from the whole of the valley to the
south of Memphis who accompanied him.
3 Lit, "He who is on the South of his Wall," a name given to one of
270 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
will return from thence in peace. If ye will trust in me,
Memphis shall be prosperous and healthy, even the children
shall not cry therein. Behold the nomes of the South ; not
a soul has been massacred there, saving only the impious
who blasphemed God, and these rebels have been executed."
This eloquence, however, was of no avail. A detachment
of archers, sailors, and engineers sent to make a recon
naissance of the harbour was taken by surprise and routed
with loss, and on the following night Tafnakhti suddenly
made his appearance on the spot. He had the 8000 men
who were defending it paraded before him, and made them
a speech, in which he pointed out the great natural strength
of the position, the stoutness of the walls and the
abundance of provisions ; he then mounted his horse, and
making his way a second time through the enemy s out
posts, headed straight for the Delta in order to levy rein
forcements there. The next day, Pionkhi went in person to
examine the approaches of the city in which his ancestors
had once been throned. There was a full Nile, and the
river came right up to the walls. He sailed close in along
the whole of the eastern front, and landed on the north,
much vexed and discomfited at finding it so strongly
fortified. Even the common soldiers were astonished, and
began to discuss among themselves the difficulties of the
undertaking with a certain feeling of discouragement. It
would be necessary, they declared, to open a regular siege,
" to make an inclined plane leading to the city, throw up
earthworks against its walls, bind ladders, set up masts and
the quarters of Memphis, and afterwards applied to the god Phtah, who was
worshipped in that quarter.
PIONKHI CAPTURES MEMPHIS 271
erect spars all around it," Pionkhi burst into a rage when
these remarks were repeated to him : a siege in set form
would have been a most serious enterprise, and would have
allowed the allied princes time to get together fresh troops.
He drove his ships full speed against the line of boats
anchored in the harbour, and broke through it at the first
onset ; his sailors then scaled the bank and occupied the
houses which overlooked it. Reinforcements concentrated
on this point gradually penetrated into the heart of the city,
and after two days fighting the garrison threw down their
arms. The victor at once occupied the temples to save
them from pillage : he then purified Memphis with water
and natron, ascended in triumph to the temple of Phtah,
and celebrated there those rites which the king alone was
entitled to perform. The other fortresses in the neighbour
hood surrendered without further hesitation. King Auputi
of Tentramu, 1 prince Akaneshu, 2 and prince Petisis tendered
the homage of their subjects in person, and the other
sovereigns of the Delta merely waited for a demonstration
in force on the part of the Ethiopians before following
their example. Pionkhi crossed the Nile and marched in
state to Heliopolis, there to receive the royal investiture.
1 Probably the original of the statue discovered by Naville at Tel-el-
Yahudiyeh. Tentramu and Taanu, the cities of Auputi, are perhaps identical
with the biblical Elim (Exod. xvi. 1) and the Daneon Portus of Pliny on the
Red Sea, but Naville prefers to identify Daneon with the Tonu of the Berlin
Papyrus No. 1. I believe that we ought to look for the kingdom of Auputi
in the neighbourhood of Menzaleh, near Tanis.
2 Akaneshu ruled over Sebennytos and in the XVII th nome. Naville
discovered at Samannud the statue of one of his descendants, a king of the
same name, perhaps his grandson, who was prince of Sebennytos in the time
of Psammetichus I.
272 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AXD THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
He offered up prayers at the various holy places aloug the
route, such as the sanctuary of Tumu at Khriahu and the
temple of the Ennead who dwelt in the cavern from which
the Northern Nile was supposed to spring ; he then crossed
over Mount Ahu, bathed his face in the reputed source of
the river, and at length penetrated into the dwelling-place
of Ka. He ascended the steps leading to the great chapel
in order that he might there " see Ra in Hait-Banbonu
even himself. All unattended, he drew the bolt, threw
open the doors, contemplated his father Ka in Hait-
Banbonu, adjusted Ka s boat Madit and the Saktit of Shu,
then closed the doors again, affixed a seal of clay, and
impressed it with the royal signet." He had thus sub
mitted his conduct for the approval of the god in whom all
attributes of royalty were vested, and the god had legitima-
tised his claims to universal rule : he was henceforth the
master, not merely de jure but de facto as well, and the
kings who had hitherto declined to recognise him were now
obliged to bow reverently before his authority.
Osorkon was the first to submit, and did so before the
close of Pionkhi s stay at Heliopolis ; when the latter
pitched his camp near Kahani l in the Athribite nome, the
nobles of the Eastern Delta, both small and great, came
one after another with their followers ; among them
Patinifi of Pisapti, Paimau of Busiris, Pabisa of Khriahu
and of Pihapi, 2 besides a dozen others. He extended his
1 Kahani is, perhaps, the modern Kaha, some distance to the north of
Qaliub.
2 Pisapti stood on the present site of Shaft-el-Hineh. Khriahu, as we
know, formed part of the Heliopolitan nome, and is, very possibly, to be
TAFNAKHTI SUES FOR PEACE 273
favour to all alike, merely stipulating that they should
give him the best of their horses, and undertake to keep
careful watch over the prosperity of their stud farms. But
Tafhakhti still held out, and seemed determined to defy
him to the end ; he had set fire to his palace and taken
refuge in the islands on the river, and had provided a
hiding-place for himself at Masudit among the marshes on
the coast in case of final defeat. A victory gained over
him by the Ethiopian generals suddenly induced him to
sue for peace. He offered to disband his men and pay
tribute, provided he was guaranteed undisturbed possession
of Sais and of the western districts of the Delta ; he
refused, however, to sue for pardon in person, and asked
that an envoy should be sent to receive his oath of
allegiance in the temple of Nit. Though deserted by
his brother princes and allies, he still retained sufficient
power to be a thorn in his conqueror s side ; his ultimate
overthrow was certain, but it would have entailed many
a bloody struggle, while a defeat might easily have shaken
the fidelity of the other feudatory kings, and endangered
the stability of the new dynasty. Pionkhi, therefore,
accepted the terms offered him without modification, and
asked for no guarantee beyond the oath taken in the
presence of the gods. News was brought him about this
time that Cynopolis and Aphroditopolis had at last thrown
open their gates, and accordingly he summoned his vassals
for the last time to his camp near Athribis. With the
exception of Tafnakhti, they all obeyed the call, including
identified with Babylon of Egypt, the Fostat of the Arabs ; Pihapi was a
place not far from the supposed source of the Southern Nile.
VOL. VII. T
274 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
two minor kings of Upper and two of Lower Egypt,
together with barons of lesser rank ; but of these, Namroti
alone was admitted to the royal apartments, because he
alone was circumcised and ate no fish ; after this the camp
was broken up, and the Ethiopians set out on their return
journey southwards. Pionkhi may well have been proud
of the result of this campaign, both for himself and for
his country. The empire of the Pharaohs, which had for
the last hundred and fifty years been divided, was now
re-established from the confluence of the Niles to the
shores of the Mediterranean, but it was no longer Egypt
that benefited by the change. It was now, after many
years of slavery, the turn of Ethiopia to rule, and the seat
of power was transferred from Thebes or Memphis to
Napata. As a matter of fact, the fundamental constitution
of the kingdom underwent no great modification ; it had
merely one king the more to rule over it not a stranger,
as we are often tempted to conclude, when we come to
measure these old-world revolutions by our modern
standards of patriotism, but a native of the south, who
took the place of those natives of the north who had
succeeded one another on the throne since the days of
Smendes. In fact, this newly crowned son of Ra lived
a very long way off ; he had no troops of his own further
north than Siut, and he had imposed his suzerainty on the
rival claimants and reigning princes without thereby
introducing any change in the constitution of the state.
In tendering their submission to him, the heads of the
different nomes had not the slightest intention of parting
with their liberty; they still retained it, even though
THE ETHIOPIAN CONQUEST 275
nominally dependent, and continued, as in the past, to
abuse it without scruple. Namroti was king at Khmunu,
Pefzaabastit at Khninsu, Auputi at Tentramu, and Osorkon
III. at Bubastis ; the prestige investing the Tanite race
persisted so effectively that the annalists give to the last-
named precedence over the usurpers of the Ethiopian
dynasty ; the Tanites continued to be the incarnate repre
sentatives of legitimate power, and when Osorkon III. died,
in 732, it was his son Psamutis who was regarded as the
Lord of Egypt. Tafnakhti had, in his defeat, gained
formal recognition of his royalty. He was no longer a
mere successful adventurer, a hero of the hour, whose
victories were his only title-deeds, whose rights rested
solely on the argument of main force. Pionkhi, in granting
him amnesty, had conferred official investiture on him and
on his descendants. Henceforth his rule at Sais was every
whit as legitimate as that of Osorkon at Bubastis, and he
was not slow in furnishing material proof of this, for he
granted himself cartouches, the urasus, and all the other
insignia of royalty. These changes must have been
quickly noised abroad throughout Asia. Commercial
intercourse between Syria and Egypt was maintained as
actively as ever, and the merchant caravans and fleets
exported with regularity the news of events as well as the
natural products of the soil or of industry. The tidings of
an Ethiopian conquest and of the re-establishment of an
undivided empire in the valley of the Nile, coming as they
did at the very moment when the first effects of the
Assyrian revival began to be so keenly felt, could not fail
to attract the attention and arouse the hopes of Syrian
276 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
statesmen. The Philistines, who had never entirely
released themselves from the ties which bound them to the
Pharaohs of the Delta, felt no repugnance at asking for a
KING TAFXAKHTI PRESENTS A FIELD TO TUMU AXD TO BASTIT. 1
renewal of their former protection. As for the Phoenicians,
the Hebrews, Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Damascus, they
began to consider whether they had not here, in Africa,
among the members of a race favourably disposed towards
1 Drawn by Boudier, from Mallet s photograph of the stele in the Museum
at Athens.
A CHOICE: EGYPT OR ASSYRIA 277
them by the memories of the past and by its ambition,
hereditary allies against Nineveh. The fact that Egypt
was torn by domestic dissensions and divided into a score
of rival principalities in no way diminished their traditional
admiration for its wealth or their confidence in its power ;
Assyria itself was merely an agglomeration of turbulent
provinces, vassal cities, and minor kingdoms, artificially
grouped round the ancient domain of Assur, and yet the
convulsions by which it was periodically shaken had not
prevented it from developing into the most formidable
engine of war that had ever threatened the peace of Asia.
The African hosts, whether led by ordinary generals or by
a king of secondary rank, formed none the less a compact
army well fitted by numbers and organisation to hold its
own against any forces which Tiglath-pileser might put
into the field; and even should the supreme Pharaoh be
unwilling to throw the full weight of his authority into the
balance, yet an alliance with one of the lesser kings, such
as the lord of Sais or of Bubastis, would be of inestimable
assistance to any one fortunate enough to secure it. It is
true that, in so far as the ultimate issue was concerned,
there was little to be gained by thus pitting the two great
powers together and persuading one to fight against the
other ; the victor must, in the long run, remain master
alike of those who had appealed for help and of those who
had fought against him, and if Egypt emerged triumphant,
there would be nothing for it but to accept her supremacy.
In either event, there could be no question of indepen
dence ; it was a choice between the hegemony of Egypt or
that of Assyria.
278 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
From the moment that Tiglath-pileser had made his
appearance on the northern horizon, the nations of Southern
Syria had instinctively looked to Pharaoh for aid. There
seems to have been an Egyptian faction in Samaria, even
during the disorders which broke out after the death of
Jeroboam II., and perhaps it was a hope of overcoming it
easily which led Menahern of his own accord to invoke the
still remote suzerainty of Nineveh, after the fall of Unki
in 738 ; * later on, when Pekah had assassinated Pekahiah
and entered into alliance with Beziu, he adopted the view
of those who saw no hope of safety save from the banks
of the Nile, his only reason for doing so being, apparently,
because the kings of the fallen dynasty had received
support from the valley of the Tigris. Hosea continually
reproached his countrymen with this vacillating policy,
and pointed out the folly of it : " Ephraim is like a silly
dove without understanding ; they call unto Egypt, they
go unto Assyria ; when they shall go I will spread My net
upon^them," said the Eternal. 2 They were to be given
up to Assyria and dispersed, and while some were to go
1 The existence of an Egyptian faction at this period has been admitted
by Kittel. Winckler has traced to the Arabian or Idumsean Muzri every
thing previously referred to Egypt. His arguments seem to me to be, in
many cases, convincing, as I shall point out where necessary, but I think he
carries his theory too far when he systematically excludes Egypt and puts
Muzri in its place. Egypt, even in its decadent state, was a far more
important power than the Arabian Muzri, and it seems unreasonable to
credit it with such a limited share in the politics of the time. I cannot
believe that any other power is intended in most of those passages in the
Hebrew writings and Assyrian inscriptions in which the words Mizraim
and Muzri occur.
2 Hos. vii. 11, 12.
THE CALL OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 279
into Assur and eat unclean food, Ephraim was to return
into Egypt ; " for, lo, they are gone away from destruction,
yet Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury
them." l Nevertheless, they persisted in negotiating with
Egypt, and though there was as yet no formal alliance
between Samaria and Sais or Tanis, their relations were
so close that no enemy of Israel could look for protection
from Psamuti or his vassals. Ahaz had, therefore, nothing
to hope from this quarter, and was compelled by the force
of circumstances to throw himself into the arms of Assyria,
if he decided to call in outside aid at all. His prophets,
like those of Pekah, strenuously forbade him to do so,
and among them was one who was beginning to exert a
marvellous influence over all classes of society Isaiah, the
son of Amoz. He had begun his career in the year that
Uzziah died, 2 and had continued to prophesy without
interruption during the brief reign of Jotham. 3 When
Jahveh first appeared to him, in the smoke of the altar,
seated on a throne and surrounded by seraphim, a sense
of his own unworthiness filled him with fear, but an angel
purified his lips with a live coal, and he heard the voice
of the Lord saying, " Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us?" and he replied, "Here am I; send me,"
whereupon Jahveh gave him this message : " Hear ye
1 Hoa. ix. 3-6. 2 Isa. vi. 1.
3 The fragments which can bo assigned to this period now occur as
follows : chap. ii. 2-5 (verses 2-4 are also found in MicaJt iv. 1-3, and were,
perhaps, borrowed from some third prophet), ii. 6-22, iii., iv., v. 1-24 (the
Parable of the Vineyard), and lastly, chap, vi., in so far as the substance
is concerned ; it seems to have been put into its present form long after the
events.
280 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
indeed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, but
perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make
their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with
their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with
their heart, and turn again and be healed." Then the
prophet asked, " Lord, how long ? " And Jahveh answered,
" Until cities be waste without inhabitant and houses
without man, and the land become utterly waste, and
Jahveh have removed men far away, and the forsaken
places be many in the midst of the land. And if there be
yet a tenth in it, it shall be eaten up ; as a terebinth, and
as an oak, whose stock remaineth when they are felled,
so the holy seed is the stock thereof." 1 Judah, though
less powerful, was quite as corrupt as his brethren of Israel,
and the divine wrath threatened him no less than them ;
it rested with himself, however, to appease it by repentance,
and to enter again into divine favour after suffering his
punishment ; the Eternal would then gather together on
Mount Sion those of His faithful people who had survived
the crisis, and would assure them a long period of prosperity
under His law. The prophet, convinced that men could
in no wise alter the decrees of the Highest, save by
repentance alone, was astonished that the heads of the
state should strive to impede the progress of events that
were happening under their very eyes, by the elaborately
useless combinations of their worldly diplomacy. To his
mind, the invasion of Pekah and Rezin was a direct
manifestation of the divine anger, and it filled him with
indignation that the king should hope to escape from it
1 Isa. vi. 9-13.
ISAIAH S REMARKABLE PROPHECY 281
by begging for an alliance against them with one of the
great powers : when Jahveh should decide that the punish
ment was sufficient for the crime, He would know how
to shatter His instruments without any earthly help.
Indeed, Isaiah had already told his master, some days
before the allied kings appeared, while the latter was busy
superintending the works intended to supply Jerusalem
with water, to " Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither
let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking
firebrands. 1 . . . Because Syria hath counselled evil against
thee, Ephraim also, and the son of Remaliah, saying, Let
us go up against Judah, hem it in, carry it by storm, and
set up the son of Tabeel as king : thus saith the Lord God,
It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass." If,
however, the course of the divine justice was to be dis
turbed by the intervention of a purely human agency, the
city would doubtless be thereby saved, but the matter
would not be allowed to rest there, and the people would
suffer even more at the hands of their allies than they had
formerly endured from their enemies. " Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name
Irnmanuel God with us. ... For before the child shall
know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land
whose two kings thou abhorrest shall be forsaken," and
yet " Jahveh shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people,
and upon thy father s house, days that have not come,
1 An explanatory gloss, " the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and of the
son of Remaliah," which formed no part of the original prophecy, is here
inserted in the text.
2 Isa. vii. 1-9.
282 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah." 1 And
then, employing one of those daring apologues, common
enough in his time, the prophet took a large tablet and
wrote upon it in large letters two symbolical names Spoil-
speedeth, Prey-hasteth and set it up in a prominent place,
and with the knowledge of credible witnesses went in unto
the prophetess his wife. When the child was born in due
course, Jahveh bade him call it Spoil- speedeth, Prey-hasteth,
11 for before he shall have knowledge to cry, My father,
and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of
Samaria shall be carried away before the King of Assyria."
But the Eternal added, " Forasmuch as this people hath
refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in
Kezin and Remaliah s son ; now therefore, behold, the
Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river [the
Euphrates], strong and many : 2 and he shall come up over
all his channels, and go over all his banks : and he shall
sweep onward into Judah ; he shall overflow and pass
through; he shall reach even to the neck, and the
stretching of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land,
Immanuel [God-with-us] ! " 3
Finding that Egypt was in favour of his adversaries,
Ahaz, in spite of the prophet s warnings, turned to Assyria. 4
At one time he had found himself so hard pressed that
1 Isa. vii. 10-17.
A marginal gloss has here been inserted in the text, indicating that it
was " the King of Assyria and all his glory " that the prophet referred to.
3 Isa. viii. 1-8.
The following portions of Isaiah are accepted as belonging to the period
of this Syrian war: in addition to chap, vii., chaps, viii.-ix. 6; xi. 1-9;
xxii. 1-11 ; i. 4-9, 18-32 ; to these Kuenen adds chap, xxiii. 1-14.
Refwbotho ly^Jif
ET"^
" .Petra-
au-
%;j
; i If;: .,. ^
, /\Ql^4JJr^ THE KINGDOM
OF DAMASCUS.
Scale
" That ll I e rdQ
THE CAMPAIGN OF 733 AGAINST ISRAEL 285
he invoked the aid of the Syrian gods, and made his eldest
son pass through the fire in order to propitiate them : l
he collected together all the silver and gold he could
find in his own treasury or in that of the temple and
sent it to Tiglath-pileser, with this message: " I am thy
servant and thy son : come up and save me out of the
hand of the King of Syria, and out of the hand of the
King of Israel, which rise up against me." 2 Tiglath-
pileser came in haste, and Rezin and Pekah, at the mere
tidings of his approach, desisted from their attack on
Jerusalem, separated, and retired each to his own king
dom. The Assyrian king did not immediately follow
them up. He took the road leading along the coast,
after leaving the plains of the middle Orontes, and levied
tribute from the Phoenician cities as he passed; he then
began by attacking the western frontier of Israel, and
sent a body of troops against the Philistines, who were
ceaselessly harassing Judah. Hannon, King of Gaza, did
not await the attack, but fled to Egypt for safety, and
Ahaz breathed freely, perhaps for the first time since
his accession. This, however, was only a beginning;
the real struggle took place in the following year, and
was hotly contested. In spite of the sorry pass to which
its former defeats and present discords had brought it,
Damascus still possessed immense wealth, and its army,
when reinforced by the Arabian and Israelite contingents,
1 2 Kings xvi. 3 (cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 3). There is nothing to indicate the
date, but most historians place the event at the beginning of the Syrian
war, a little before or during the siege.
- Kings xvi. 7, 8 ; cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 16, 20, 21.
286 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
was capable of holding its own for a long time against
the battalions of Assyria, even if it could not hope to
conquer them. Unfortunately for its chances, Eezin had
failed to inherit the military capacity of his great prede
cessors, Ben-hadad and Hazael ; he allowed Tiglath-pileser
to crush the Hebrews without rendering them any effective
assistance. Pekah fought his best, but he lost, one
after another, the strongholds which guarded his northern
frontier Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, and
Hazor; he saw the whole of Naphtali and Gilead laid
waste, and their inhabitants carried off into Assyria with
out his being able to prevent it ; he himself being obliged
to evacuate Samaria and take refuge in the mountains
almost unattended. Judah followed, with mingled exul
tation and disquietude, the vicissitudes of the tragic drama
which was thus enacted before its eyes, and Isaiah
foretold the speedy ruin of the two peoples who had
but yesterday threatened to enslave it. He could already see
the following picture in his mind s eye : " Damascus is taken
away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken : they shall be for flocks,
which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 1
The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the king
dom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria : they shall
be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord
1 Both of these Aroers lay beyond Jordan one in Reuben, afterwards
Moab (Judg. xi. 26 ; Jer. xlviii. 19) ; the other in Ammon, afterwards Gad
(Josh. xiii. 25 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 5) ; here they stand for the countries beyond
Jordan which Tiglath-pileser had just laid waste. The tradition preserved
in 1 CJiron. v. 26 stated that these inhabitants of Gad and Reuben were led
into captivity by Pul, i.e. Tiglath-pileser.
THE FALL OF THE KINGDOM OF DAMASCUS
of hosts! And it shall come to pass in that day, that
the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness
of his flesh shall wax lean. And it shall be as when
the harvestman gathereth the standing corn, and his arin
reapeth the ears ; yea, it shall be as when one gleaneth
ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet there shall be left
therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive tree, two
or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree,
saith Jahveh, the God of Israel ! ... In that day shall
his strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood,
and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before
the children of Israel: 1 and it shall be as a desolation.
For thou hast forgotten the G-od of thy salvation."
Samaria was doomed to helplessness for many a day to
come, if not for ever, but it had taken a whole year
to lay it low (733) ; Tiglath-pileser returned in 732, and
devoted yet another year to the war against Damascus.
Rezin had not been dismayed by the evil fortune of
his friends, and had made good his losses by means of
fresh alliances. He had persuaded first Mutton II. of
Tyre, then Mitinti of Askalon, and with the latter a
section of the Philistines, to throw in their lot with him ;
he had even won over Sharnshieh, queen of the Arabs, and
with her a number of the most warlike of the desert
tribes ; for himself, he had taken up a position on the
further side of Anti-Lebanon, and kept strict watch from
1 This is probably an allusion to the warlike exploits performed during
Rezin and Pekah s invasion of Judaea, a year or two previously.
2 Isa. xvii. 1-6, 9, 10.
288 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Mount Herinon on the roads leading from the valley of
the Jordan to the plains of the Abana, in order to prevent
the enemy from outflanking him and taking him in the
rear. But all to no purpose ; Tiglath-pileser bore directly
down upon him, overwhelmed him in a pitched battle,
MOUNT IIERMOX.
c 1
obliged him to take refuge behind the walls of Damascus,
and there besieged him. The city was well fortified,
amply supplied with provisions, and strongly garrisoned;
the siege was, therefore, a long one, and the Assyrians
filled up the time by laying waste the fertile country
at the foot of Anti-Lebanon. At last Eezin yielded, gave
himself up unconditionally, and was forthwith executed:
eight thousand of his followers were carried off to
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph brought back by Lortrt.
HOSHEA S REBELLION
289
Kir, on the confines of Elarn, 1 his kingdom was
abolished, and a Ninevite governor was installed in his
palace, by whom the former domain of Damascus and
the territory lately wrested from Israel were henceforth
to be administered. The coalition
he had formed did not long survive
its leader. 2 Mutton hastily came
to an understanding with the con
queror ; Mitinti, like Hannon, fled
into Egypt, and his place was taken
by Eukibtu, a partisan of Assyria.
Hoshea, son of Elah, rebelled
against Pekah, assassinated him,
and purchased the right to reign over what was left of
Israel for ten talents of gold. 4 Shamshieh alone held out.
1 2 Kings xvi. 9. Kir is generally located in Armenia, Media, or
Babylonia ; a passage in Isaiah (xxii. 6), however, seems to point to its
having been somewhere in the direction of Elam, and associated with the
Aramaeans on the banks of the Tigris. The Assyrian monuments have not,
as yet, yielded confirmation of the details given by the Book of the Kings in
regard to the captivity of the inhabitants of Damascus. A fragmentary
tablet, giving an account of the death of Rezin, was discovered by H. Ra\v-
linson, but it was left in Assyria, and no one knows what has since become
of it.
2 The following is a list of the kings of Damascus from the time of
David, as far as is known up to the present time :
AN AKAB. 3
REZIN I.
KHEZI6N?
TABRIMMON.
BEN-HADAD I.
ADADIDEI (BEN-HADAD II.).
HAZAEL.
BEN-HADAD III.
MAR!.
REZIN II.
3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.
4 2 Kings xv. 30, The inscription published by H. Rawlinson, merely
VOL. VII. U
290
TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
She imagined herself to be safe among the sands of the
desert, and it never occurred to her that the heavy masses
of the Assyrian army would dream of venturing into these
solitudes. Detachments of light cavalry were sent in
pursuit of her, and at first met with some difficulties;
they were, however, eventually successful ; the Armenian
and Cappadocian steeds of the Ninevite horsemen easily
ARAB MEIIARIS RIDDEN DOWN BY THE ASSYRIAN CAVALRY. 1
rode down the queen s meharis. Their success made a
great impression on the Arab tribes, and induced the
Mashai, Timal Sabseans, Khaiapseans, Badaneeans, and
Khattiseans to bend the knee before Assyria! They all
sent envoys bearing presents of gold and silver, camels,
both male and female, and spices: 2 even the Muzri,
states that " they overthrew Pekah, their king, and I promoted Auzi [to
the kingship] over them. I received [from him] X talents of gold and . . .
talents of silver. . . .
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the bas-relief reproduced by Layard.
2 Delitzsch has identified the names of several of these races with
names mentioned in the Bible, such as the Temah, Massah, Ephah,
Sheba.
Arab School
END OF THE BABYLONIAN DYNASTY 291
whose territory lay to the south of the Dead Sea, followed
their example, and a certain Idibiel was appointed as
their chief. 1 While his lieutenants were settling out
standing issues in this fashion, Tiglath-pileser held open
courts at Damascus, where he received the visits and
homage of the Syrians. They came to assure themselves
by the evidence of their own eyes of the downfall of
the power which had for more than one hundred years
checked the progress of Assyria. Those who, like Uassarmi
of Tabal, showed any sign of disaffection were removed,
the remainder were confirmed in their dignities, subject
to payment of the usual tribute, and Mutton of Tyre
was obliged to give one hundred talents of gold to
ransom his city. Ahaz came to salute his preserver,
and to obtain a nearer view of the soldiers to whom
he owed continued possession of Jerusalem ; 2 the kings
of Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Askalon, the Philistines
and the nomads of the Arabian desert, carried away by
the general example, followed the lead of Judah, until
there was not a single prince or lord of a city from
the Euphrates to the river of Egypt who had not
acknowledged himself the humble vassal of Nineveh.
With the downfall of Eezin, Syria s last hope of
recovery had vanished ; the few states which still enjoyed
some show of independence were obliged, if they wished
to retain it, to make a parade of unalterable devotion to
The name Muzri, as Winckler has shown, here refers, not to Egypt,
but to a canton near Edom, the Nabataea of the Greco-Koman geographers.
2 Kings xvi. 10-12. The Nimroud Inscrip. merely mentions his tribute
among that of the Syrian kings.
292 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
their Ninevite master, or if they found his suzerainty
intolerable had to risk everything by appealing to Egypt
for help.
Much as they may have wished from the very first to
do so, it was too early to make the attempt so soon after the
conference at Damascus ; Tiglath-pileser had, therefore, no
cause to fear a rebellion among them, at any rate for some
years to come, and it was just as well that this was so, for
at the moment of his triumph on the shores of the
Mediterranean his interests in Chaldaea were threatened by
a serious danger. Nabonazir, King of Karduniash, had
never swerved from the fidelity which he had sworn to his
mighty ally after the events of 745, but the tranquillity of
his reign had been more than once disturbed by revolt.
Borsippa itself had risen on one occasion, and endeavoured
to establish itself as an independent city side by side with
Babylon.
When Nabonazir died, in 734, he was succeeded by his
son Nabunadinziri, but at the end of a couple of years
the latter was assassinated during a popular outbreak,
and Nabushumukln, one of his sons, who had been
implicated in the rising, usurped the crown (732). He
wore it for two months and twelve days, and then abdicated
in favour of a certain Ukinzir. 1 The latter was chief of the
1 The following is as complete a list as can at present be compiled of this
Babylonian dynasty, the eighth of those registered in Pinches Canons (cf.
ROST, UntersucJi. zur altorient. GescJi ., p. 27) :-
NABU-K!NABAL ?
SHAMASH-MUDAMMIQ.
NABU-SHUMISHKUN I.
NABU-ABA L-IDDINA.
MAKDUK-NADIN-SHUMU,
THE TWO CAMPAIGNS AGAINST UKIXZIR 293
Bit-Amukkani, one of the most important among the
Chaldean communities ; l the descendants of the Aramaean
nomads were thus once more placed upon the throne, and
their accession put an end to the relations which had
existed for several centuries between Assyria and
Karduniash. These marauders, who had always shown
themselves impatient of any settled authority, and had
never proffered more than a doubtful submission to even the
most triumphant invader, were not likely to accept the
subordinate position which members of the presiding
dynasty had been, for the most part, content to occupy.
It was more probable that they would, from the very first,
endeavour to throw off the suzerainty of Nineveh. Tiglath-
pileser gave the new dynasty no time to settle itself firmly
on the throne : the year after his return from Syria he got
together an army and marched against it. He first cleared
the right bank of the Tigris, where the Pukudu (Pekod)
offered but a feeble resistance ; he annexed their territory
to the ancient province of Arrapkha, then crossed the river
MARDUK-BALAT.SUIKBI.
BAU-AKHIDDIX
XABU-SHCMISHKUX II.
XABC-XAZIR (XABOXASSAR).
XABU-KADIX-ZIRI.
XABU-SHUMUKIX.
It included twenty-two kings, and lasted for about three hundred and fifty
years.
The chronicle is silent with regard to the origin of Ukinzir, but
Tiglath-pileser, who declines to give him the title of " King of Babylon,"
says that he was mar AmukMni = son of Amukkani. Pinches Canon
indicates that Ukinzir belonged to a dynasty the name of which may be
read either Shashi or Shapi. The reading Shapi at once recalls the name
of Shapia, one of the chief cities of the Bit-Amukkani ; it would thus con
firm the evidence of the Xiruroud Inscription.
294 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
and attacked the Kaldi scattered among the plains and
marshes of the Shatt el-Hai. The Blt-Shilani were the
first to succumb ; their king Nabushabshi was impaled
before one of the gates of his capital, Sarrabanu, the town
itself was taken by storm, plundered and dismantled, and
55,000 of its inhabitants were led captive into Assyria.
After the Btt-Shilani, came the turn of the Bit-Shaali.
Dur-Illatai, their capital, was razed to the ground, and its
population, numbering 50,400 men and
women, was deported. Their chief,
Lakiru, who had shown great bravery
in the struggle, escaped impalement, but
was sent into captivity with his people,
a Ninevite governor being appointed in
his place. Ukinzir, who was, as we
know, hereditary prince of the Bit-Amuk-
kani, came up in haste to defend his
appanage, and threw himself into his fortress at Shapia :
Tiglath-pileser cut down the gardens and groves of palms
which lent it beauty, burnt the surrounding farms and vil
lages, and tried, without success, to make a breach in the
walls ; he still, however, maintained the siege, but when
winter came on and the place still held out, he broke up his
camp and retreated in good order, leaving the districts
which he had laid waste occupied by an Assyrian force.
Before his departure, he received homage and tribute from
most of the Aramasan chiefs, including those of Balasu and
the Bit-Dakkuri, of Nadlnu, and even of the Bit-Yakin and
Merodach-baladan, whose ancestors had never before
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a woodcut published by Tomkins.
TIGLATH-PILESER KING OF SUMIR AND AKKAD 295
" kissed the foot of an Assyrian conqueror. In this
campaign he had acquired nearly three-fourths of the whole
Babylonian kingdom ; but Babylon itself still refused to
yield, and it was no easy task to compel it to do so.
Tiglath-pileser spent the whole of the year 730 in preparing
for another attack, and in 729 he again appeared in front of
Shapla, this time with greater success : Ukinzir fell into
his hands, Babylon opened its gates, and he caused himself
to be proclaimed King of Sumir and Akkad within its walls. 1
Many centuries had passed since the two empires had been
united under the rule of a single master, or an Assyrian
king had " taken the hands of Bel." Tiglath-pileser
accepted the condition attached to this solemn investiture,
which obliged him to divide his time between Calah and
Babylon, and to repeat at every festival of the New Year
the mystic ceremony by which the god of the city con
firmed him in his office. 2 His Babylonian subjects seem to
have taken a liking to him, and perhaps in order to hide
from themselves their dependent condition, they shortened
his purely Assyrian name of Tukulti-abal-esharra into the
familiar sobriquet of Puru or Pulu, under which appellation
the native chroniclers later on inscribed him in the official
list of kings : he did not long survive his triumph, but died
L Contemporary documents do not furnish us with any information as to
these events. The Eponym Canon tells us that " the king took the hands of
Bel." Pinches Chronicle adds that " in the third year of Ukinzir, Tiglath-
pileser marched against Akkad, laid waste the Bit-Amukkani, and took
Ukinzir prisoner ; Ukinzir had reigned three years in Babylon. Tiglath-
pileser followed him upon the throne of Babylon."
2 The Eponym Canon proves that in 728 B.C., the year of his death, he
once more took the hands of Bel.
296 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
in the month of Tebeth, 728 B.C., after having reigned
eighteen years over Assyria, and less than two years over
Babylon and Chaldsea.
The formula employed by the scribes in recording
historical events vary so little from one reign to another,
that it is, in most cases, a difficult matter to make out,
under the mask of uniformity by which they are all
concealed, the true character and disposition of each
successive sovereign. One thing, however, is certain
the monarch who now came upon the scene after half
a century of reverses, and in a brief space restored to
his armies the skill necessary to defeat such formidable
foes as the Armenians or the Syrians of Damascus, must
have been an able general and a born leader of men. Yet
Nineveh had never suffered long from a lack of capable
generals, and there would be little to distinguish Tiglath-
pileser from any of his predecessors, if we could place
nothing more than a few successful campaigns to his
credit. His claim to a pre-eminent place among them
rests on the fact that he combined the talents of the
soldier with the higher qualities of the administrator, and
organised his kingdom in a manner at once so simple
and so effective, that most of the Oriental powers down
to the time of the Grecian conquest were content to
accept it as a model. As soon as the ambition of the
Assyrian kings began to extend beyond the region confined
between the Khabur and the Greater Zab, they found it
necessary to parcel out their territory into provinces under
the authority of prefects for the purpose of preserving
order among the vanquished peoples, and at the same
CREATION OF NEW PROVINCES 297
time of protecting them from the attacks of adjacent
tribes ; these representatives of the central power were
supported by garrisons, and were thus enabled to put down
such minor insurrections as broke out from time to time.
Some of these provinces were already in existence in the
reigns of Shalmaneser or Tiglath-pileser I. ; after the
reverses in the time of Assurirba, their number decreased,
but it grew rapidly again as Assur-nazir-pal and Shal
maneser III. gradually extended the field of their operations
and of their victories. From this epoch onwards, the
monuments mention over a score of them, in spite of
the fact that the list thus furnished is not a complete
one ; the provinces of which we know most are those whose
rulers were successively appointed to act as limmi, each
of them giving their name to a year of a reign. Assyria
proper contained at least four, viz. Assur (called the
country, as distinguished from all others), Calah, Nineveh,
and Arbela. The basin of the Lesser Zab was divided
into the provinces of Kakzi, Arrapkha, and Akhizukhina ; *
that of the Upper Tigris into those of Amidi, Tushkhan,
and Gozan. Kirruri was bounded by Mazamua, and
Mazamua by Arrapkha and Lake Urumiah. We hear of
the three spheres of Nazibina (Nisibis), Tela, and Razappa
in Mesopotamia, 2 the two former on the southern water
sheds of the Masios, on the highways leading into Syria ;
1 Akhizukhina is probably identical with Arzukhina = "the City of
Zukhiiia," which is referred to as being situated in the basin of the Lesser
Zab.
2 Razappa is the biblical Rezeph (2 Kings xix. 12 ; Isa, xxxvii. 12) and
the Resapha of Ptolemy, now Er-Rasafa, to the south of the Euphrates, on
one of the routes leading to Palmyra.
298 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
the latter to the south of the Euphrates, in the former
kingdom of the Laqi. Most of them included in addition
to the territory under the immediate control of the
governor a number of vassal states, kingdoms, cities,
and tribes, which enjoyed a certain measure of indepen
dence, but were liable to pay tribute and render military
service. Each new country was annexed, as soon as
conquered, to the nearest province, or, if necessary, was
converted into a distinct province by itself ; thus we find
that Assur-nazir-pal, after laying hands on the upper
valleys of the Radanu and the Turnat, rebuilt the ruined
city of Atlila, re-named it Dur-Assur, placed a com
mandant, cavalry, and eunuchs there, and established
within it storehouses for the receipt of contributions from
the neighbouring barbarians. He followed the same course
on each occasion when the fortune of war brought him
fresh subjects ; l and his successors, Shalmaneser III.,
Samsi-ramman IV., and Ramman-nirari did the same thing
in Media, in Asia Minor, and in Northern Syria ; 2 Tiglath-
pileser III. had only to follow their example and extend
the application of their system to the countries which
he gradually forced to submit to his rule. 3 In his case,
however, certain elements came into play which forced
1 We read of the appointment of a governor in Bit-Khalupi, at Tush-
khan, in Nairi, and in the country of the Patina.
2 The territory of the Bit-Adini was converted into a province by Shal
maneser III.
3 We find the formation of an Aramsean province, with Kar-Assur as its
capital, mentioned in the Annals of Tiglath-pileser III. Provinces were also
established in Media, in Unki, in the basin of the Orontes, and in Lebanon,
from nineteen districts formerly belonging to Hamath, six maritime pro
vinces in Northern Phoenicia and in Ccele-Syria, in Galilee, at Gaza.
THE VASSAL STATES 301
him to modify several of their methods, and to have
recourse to others which they had seldom or never em
ployed. The majority of the countries hitherto incor
porated had been near enough to the capital whether
it were Assur, Calah, or Nineveh to permit of strict
watch heing kept for any sign of disaffection, and they
could be promptly recalled to order if they attempted to
throw off the yoke. These provinces were, moreover, of
moderate area and sparsely populated : once drawn within
the orbit of Assyria s attraction, they were unable to
escape from its influence by their own unaided efforts ;
on the contrary, they gradually lost their individuality,
and ended by becoming merged in the body of the nation.
The Arama3an tribes of the Khabur and the Balikh, the
Cossa3ans of the Turnat, the marauding shepherds of the
Gordya3an hills and the slopes of the Masios, gradually
became assimilated to their conquerors after a more or
less protracted resistance, till at length in spite of
differences of origin, creed, and speech they became the
best of Assyrians, every whit as devoted to the person
of their king and as jealous of his honour as the aboriginal
Assyrians themselves. A similar result could not be
looked for in the case of the cities recently subdued. It
was not to be expected that Babylon and Damascus to
name but two of the most important would allow them
selves to be influenced and to become reconciled to their
lot by artifices which had been successful enough with the
Medes and in the country of Tul-Abni.
To take the case of Babylon first. It was no mere
conglomeration of tribes, nor a state of minor importance,
302 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AXD THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
but an actual empire, nearly as large as that of Assyria
itself, and almost as solidly welded together. It extended
from the Turnat and the mountains of Elam to the Arabian
desert and the Nar-Marratum, and even though the
Cossa3ans, Elamites, Kalda, Sumerians, Akkadians, and
other remnants of ancient peoples who formed its some
what motley population, had dwelt there for centuries
in a state of chronic discord, they all agreed in theory,
at any rate in recognising the common suzerainty of
Babylon. Babylon was, moreover, by general acknowledg
ment, the ancient metropolis to which Assyria owed its
whole civilisation ; it was the holy city whose gods and
whose laws had served as a prototype for the gods and
laws of Assyria; from its temples and its archives the
Assyrian scribes had drawn such knowledge as they
had of the history of the ancient world, their religious
doctrines and ceremonies, their methods of interpreting
the omens and of forecasting the future in short, their
whole literature, both sacred and profane. The King
of Nineveh might conquer Babylon, might even enter
within its gates in the hour of triumph, and, when once
he had it at his mercy, might throw down its walls,
demolish its palaces, destroy its ziggurdt, burn its houses,
exterminate or carry off its inhabitants, and blot out
its name from the list of nations; but so long as he
recoiled from the sacrilege involved in such irreparable
destruction, he was not merely powerless to reduce it to
the level of an ordinary leading provincial town, such as
Tela or Tushkhan, but he could not even deprive it in
any way Q^ its rank as a capital, or hope to make it
BABYLON S PRESTIGE 303
anything less than the second city of his empire. As
long as it remained in existence, it necessarily took
precedence of all others, thanks to its extensive area,
the beauty and antiquity of its buildings, and the number
of its inhabitants. The pride of its nobles and priests,
subdued for a moment by defeat, would almost instantly
have reasserted itself, had the victor sought to lower
the dignity of their city ; Babylon only consented to accept
an alien master provided he bowed himself respectfully
before its superiority, and was willing to forget that he
was a stranger within its gates, and was ready to comply
with its laws and masquerade as a Babylonian. Tiglath-
pileser III. never dreamt, therefore, of treating the
Babylonians as slaves, or of subordinating them to their
Assyrian descendants, but left their liberties and territory
alike unimpaired. He did not attempt to fuse into a
single empire the two kingdoms which his ability had
won for him ; he kept them separate, and was content
to be monarch of both on similar terms. He divided
himself, as it were, into two persons, one of whom reigned
in Calah, while the other reigned in Karduniash, and
his Chaldasan subjects took care to invest this dual rdle
based on a fiction so soothing to their pride with
every appearance of reality ; he received from them,
together with all the titles of the Babylonian kings, that
name of Pulu, which later on found its way into their
chronicles, and which was so long a puzzle to historians,
both ancient and modern. Experience amply proved
that this was the only means by which it was possible
to yoke temporarily together the two great powers of
304 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
the Euphrates and the Tigris. Among the successors of
Tiglath-pileser, the only sovereigns to rule over Babylon
without considerable difficulty were those who followed
the precedent set by him and were satisfied to divide their
functions and reign as dual kings over a dual kingdom. 1
This combination, while gratifying to the ambition of
its rulers, was, perhaps, more a source of loss than of gain
to Assyria itself. It is true that the power of Karduniash
had decreased under the previous dynasty, but it had
still been strong enough to hold back the Arama3ans of
the Persian Gulf on one side, and the Elamite hordes
on the other. It lay like a broad barrier between these
barbarians and the cities of the Middle Tigris ; when an
unusually vigorous attack compelled it to give way at
some point, it appealed to Nineveh for help, and an
Assyrian army, entering the country at the fords of the
Zab, hastened to drive back the aggressors to the place
from which they had set out. When, however, the kings
of Assyria had become kings of Babylon as well, the
situation was altered. Several branches of the Kalda
had hitherto held possession of the city, and still possessed
representatives and allies among the other tribes, especially
among the Bit-Yakin, who believed themselves entitled
to reassert their supremacy within in. The Elamite
princes, on their part, accustomed to descend at will
into the plains that lay between the Tigris and the
This was so in the case of Tiglath-pileser III. s immediate successor,
Shalmaneser V., of Esarhaddon, and of Assur-bani-pal ; Shalmaneser was
known at Babylon by the name of Ululai, Assur-bani-pal by that of Kanda-
lanu.
TIGLATH-PILESER IN SYRIA 305
Euphrates, and to enrich themselves by frequent raids,
could not make up their minds to change the habits of
centuries, until they had at least crossed swords with
the new despot, and put his mettle to the test. The
Ninevite King of Babylon was thus in duty bound to
protect his subjects against the same enemies that had
ceaselessly harassed his native-born predecessors, and
as the unaided resources of Karduniash no longer enabled
him to do so effectively, he was, naturally, obliged to fall
back on the forces at his disposal as King of Assyria.
Henceforward it was no longer the Babylonian army that
protected Nineveh, but rather that of Nineveh which had
to protect Babylon, and to encounter, almost every year,
foes whom in former days it had met only at rare intervals,
and then merely when it chose to intervene in their affairs.
Where the Assyrian sovereigns had gained a kingdom for
themselves and their posterity, Assyria itself found little
else but fresh battle-fields and formidable adversaries, in the
effort to overcome whom its energies were all but exhausted.
In Syria and on the shores of the Mediterranean,
Tiglath-pileser had nations of less stubborn vitality to
deal with, nor was he bound by the traditions of a common
past to show equal respect to their prejudices. Arpad,
Unki, the Bekaa, Damascus, and Gilead were all con
secutively swallowed up by Assyria, but, the work of
absorption once completed, difficulties were encountered
which now had to be met for the first time. The
subordinate to whom he entrusted the task of governing
these districts 1 had one or two Assyrian regiments assigned
1 The governor was called Shalcnu = " he whom the king has established
VOL. VII. X
306 TIGLATII-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
him as his body-guard, 1 and these exercised the same
ascendency over the natives as the Egyptian archers had
done in days gone by : it was felt that they had the whole
might of Assyria behind them, and the mere fact of their
presence in the midst of the conquered country was, as
a rule, sufficient to guarantee the safety of the Assyrian
governor and ensure obedience to his commands. This
body-guard was never a very numerous one, for the army
would have melted away in the course of a campaign or
two, had it been necessary, after each fresh conquest, to
detach from it a sufficient force to guard against rebellion.
It was strengthened, it is true, by auxiliaries enlisted on
the spot, and the tributary chiefs included in the provincial
district were expected to furnish a reasonable quota of
men in case of need ; 2 but the loyalty of all these people
was, at the best, somewhat doubtful, and in the event of
their proving untrustworthy at a critical moment, the
little band of Assyrian horse and foot would be left to
deal with the revolt unaided until such time as the king
could come and relieve them. The distance between the
in his place," and pcTcJiu = " the pilot," "the manager," whence piltliatu =
"a district," and lel-piMati = " the master of a district." It seems that
the sJtaJcnu was of higher rank than the lel-pikfiati, and often had the latter
under his command.
1 Thus Assur-nazir-pal selected the horsemen and other soldiers who
were to form the body-guard of the governor of Parzindu.
2 In a despatch from Belibni to Assur-bani-pal we find Aramaeans from
the Persian Gulf submitting to the authority of an Assyrian officer, and
fighting in Elam side by side with his troops. Again, under Assur-bani-pal,
an army sent to repress a revolt on the part of Kedar and the Nabatseans
included contingents fi-om Ammon, Moab, and Edom, together with the
Assyrian garrisons of the Hauran and Zobah.
EGYPTIAN SECRET INTRIGUES 307
banks of the Jordan or Abana and those of the Tigris
was a long one, and in nearly every instance it would
have been a question of months before help could arrive.
Meanwhile, Egypt was at hand, jealous of her rival, who
was thus encroaching on territory which had till lately
been regarded as her exclusive sphere of influence, and
vaguely apprehensive of the fate which might be in store
for her if some Assyrian army, spurred by the lust of
conquest, were to cross the desert and bear down upon
the eastern frontiers of the Delta. Distrustful of her
own powers, and unwilling to assume a directly offensive
attitude, she did all she could to foment continual dis
turbances among the Hebrews and Phoenicians, as well
as in Philistia and Aram ; she carried on secret intrigues
with the independent princes, and held out tempting hopes
of speedy intervention before the eyes of their peoples ;
her influence could readily be traced in every seditious
movement. The handful of men assigned to the governors
of the earlier provinces close to the capital would have
been of little avail against perils of this kind. Though
Tiglath-pileser added colony to colony in the distant
regions annexed by him, he organised them on a different
plan from that which had prevailed before his time. His
predecessors had usually sent Assyrians to these colonies,
and filled the villages vacated by them with families taken
from the conquered region : a transfer of inhabitants was
made, for instance, from Nalri or from Media into Assyria,
and vice versd. By following this system, Tiglath-pileser
would soon have scattered his whole people over the
dependencies of his empire, and have found his hereditary
308 TIGLATH PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
states peopled by a motley and incoherent collection of
aliens ; he therefore left his Assyrians for the most part
at home, and only effected exchanges between captives.
In his earlier campaigns he brought back with him, on
one occasion, 65,000 prisoners from the table-land of Iran,
in order to distribute them over a province which he
was organising on the banks of the Turnat and the Zab :
he levied contributions of this kind without mercy from
all the states that he conquered from year to year, and
dispersed the captives thus obtained over the length and
breadth of his empire ; he transplanted the Aramaeans
of the Mesopotamian deserts, and the Kalda to the slopes
of Mount Amanus or the banks of the Orontes, the
Patinians and HamathaBans to Ulluba, the inhabitants of
Damascus to Kir or to the borders of Elam, 1 and the
Israelites to some place in Assyria. 3 He allowed them
to take with them their wives and their children, their
herds, their chattels, their gods, and even their money.
Drafted into the towns and country districts in batches
sufficiently numerous to be self-supporting, but yet not
large enough to allow of their at once re-establishing
themselves as a distinct nation in their new home, they
seem to have formed, even in the midst of the most
turbulent provinces, settlements of colonists who lived
unaffected by any native influence or resentment. The
aborigines hated them because of their religion, their
customs, their clothing, and their language ; in their
eyes they were mere interlopers, who occupied the property
of relations or fellow-countrymen who had fallen in battle
1 2 Kings xvi. 9. 2 2 Kings xv. 29.
DEPORTATION OF THE CONQUERED RACES 309
or had been spirited away to the other end of the world.
And even when, after many years, the native owners of
the soil had become familiarised with them, this mutual
antipathy had struck such deep root in their minds that
any understanding between the natives and the descendants
of the immigrants was quite out of the question : what
had been formerly a vast kingdom, occupied by a single
homogeneous race, actuated by a common patriotic spirit,
became for many a year a region capriciously subdivided
and torn by the dissensions of a number of paltry
antagonistic communities. The colonists, exposed to the
same hatreds as the original Assyrian conquerors, soon
forgot to look upon the latter as the oppressors of all,
and, allowing their present grudge to efface the memory
of past injuries, did not hestitate to make common cause
with them. In time of peace, the governor did his best
to protect them against molestation on the part of the
natives, and in return for this they rallied round him
whenever the latter threatened to get out of hand, and
helped him to stifle the revolt or hold it in check until
the arrival of reinforcements. Thanks to their help, the
empire was consolidated and maintained without too many
violent outbreaks in regions far removed from the capital
and beyond the immediate reach of the sovereign. 1
We possess very few details with regard to the adminis
tration of these prefects. 2 The various functionaries,
This was the history of the only one of those colonies whose fate is
known to us that founded at Samaria by Sargon and his successors.
The texts contain a certain number of names of offices, the precise
nature of which it is not easy to ascertain, e.g. the Khazanu, the Labuttu,
310 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
governors of towns, tax-collectors, heads of stations, and
officers whose duty it was to patrol the roads and look
after the safety of merchants, were, for the most part,
selected from among natives who had thrown in their
lot with Assyria, and probably few Assyrians were to be
found outside the more turbulent cities and important
fortresses. The kings and chiefs whose territory was
attached to a given province, either took their instructions
direct from Nineveh, or were sometimes placed under
the control of a resident, or kipu, with some sort of escort
at his back, who kept watch over their movements and
reported them to the suzerain, and saw that the tribute
was paid regularly, and that the military service provided
for in the treaties was duly rendered. Governors and
residents alike kept up a constant correspondence with
the court, and such of their letters as have chanced to
come down to us show what a minute account of even
the most trifling occurrences was required of them by the
central authorities. They were not only obliged to report
any fluctuation in the temper or attitude of their subordi
nates, or any intrigues that were being entered into across
the frontier ; they had also to record the transfer of troops,
the return of fugitives, the pursuit of deserters, any chance
scuffle between soldiers and natives, as well as the punish
ment inflicted on the rebellious, the appearance of a
portent in the heavens, or omens noticed by the augurs.
There were plenty of envious or officious tongues among
and others. One of them, apparently, should be read Shuparshak, and identical
with one of the titles mentioned in Ezra (v. 6, vi. 6) as being in existence
during the Persian epoch.
PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATORS 311
their followers to report to headquarters the slightest failure
of duty, and to draw attention to their negligence. More
over, it seems certain that the object of thus compelling
them to refer to the king at every turn, was not merely
in order to keep him informed of all that took place
in his dependencies, but also to lay bare the daily life
of his prefects before his eyes. The latter were entrusted
with the command of seasoned troops ; they had consider
able sums of money passing through their hands, and
were often obliged to take prompt decisions and enter
into diplomatic or military transactions on their own
responsibility; in short, most of them, at any rate, who
were stationed at the furthest confines of the empire
were really kings in all but title, insignia, and birth.
There was always the danger lest some among them
should be tempted to reassert, in their own interest, the
independence of the countries under their rule, and seek
to found a dynasty in their midst. The strict supervision
maintained over these governors generally nipped any
ambition of this kind in the bud ; in some cases, however,
it created the very danger it was intended to prevent.
If a governor who had been recalled to Nineveh or Calah
in order to explain his conduct failed to clear himself
completely, he at once fell into disgrace ; and disgrace
in Assyria, as in other countries of the East, meant, nine
times out of ten, confiscation of property, mutilation and
lifelong imprisonment, or death in its most hideous form.
He would, therefore, think twice before quitting his post,
and if he had any reason to suppose himself suspected,
or viewed with disfavour in high quarters, he would be
312 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
in no hurry to obey a summons to the capital. A revolt
was almost certain to be crushed without fail, and offered
merely a very precarious chance of escape, but the governor
was seldom likely to hesitate between almost certain
condemnation and the vague possibility of a successful
rising ; in such a case, therefore, he staked everything
on a single throw.
The system was
a defective one,
in that it exposed
to strong tempta
tion the very
f unctionarie s
whose loyalty was
most essential to
the proper work
ing of the admin
istration, but its
dangers were out
weighed by such
important advan
tages that we cannot but regard it as a very real im
provement on the haphazard methods of the past. In
the first place, it opened up a larger recruiting-ground
for the army, and, in a measure, guaranteed it against that
premature exhaustion which had already led more than
once to an eclipse of the Assyrian power. It may be that
the pick of these provincial troops were, preferably, told off
for police duties, or for the defence of the districts in which
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell.
TIGLATH-PILESEK III. BESIEGING A KEBELLIOUS CITY. 1
THE FINANCES OF THE KINGDOM 313
they were levied, and that they seldom left it except to
do battle in the adjacent territory ; l but, even with these
limitations they were none the less of inestimable value,
since they relieved the main army of Assyria from garrison
duties in a hundred scattered localities, and allowed the
king to concentrate it almost in its entirety about his own
person, and to direct it en masse upon those points where
he wished to strike a decisive blow. On the other hand,
the finances of the kingdom were put on a more stable
and systematic basis. For nearly the whole of the two
previous centuries, during which Assyria had resumed its
victorious career, the treasury had been filled to some
extent by taxes in kind or in money, and by various dues
claimed from the hereditary kingdom and its few immediate
dependencies, but mainly by booty and by tribute levied
after each campaign from the peoples who had been
conquered or had voluntarily submitted to Assyrian rule.
The result was a budget which fluctuated greatly, since
all forays were not equally lucrative, and the new depend
encies proved so refractory at the idea of perpetual tribute,
that frequent expeditions were necessary in order to
persuade them to pay their dues. We do not know how
Tiglath-pileser III. organised the finances of his provinces,
but certain facts recorded here and there in the texts
show that he must have drawn very considerable amounts
from them. We notice that twenty or thirty years after
his time, Carchemish was assessed at a hundred talents,
Arpad and Km at thirty each, Megiddo and Manzuatu at
1 Thus, in the reign of Assur-bani-pal, we find the militia of the governor
of Uruk marching to battle against the Gambulu.
314 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
fifteen, though the purposes to which these sums were
applied is not specified. On the other hand, we know
the precise object to which the contributions of several
other cities were assigned; as, for instance, so much for
the maintenance of the throne in the palace, or for the
divans of the ladies of the harem ; so much for linen
garments, for dresses, and for veils; twenty talents from
A HERD OF HORSES BROUGHT IX AS TRIBUTE. 1
Nineveh for the armaments of the fleet, and ten from
the same city for firewood. Certain provinces were
expected to maintain the stud-farms, and their contribu
tions of horses were specially valuable, now that cavalry
played almost as important a part as infantry in military
operations. The most highly prized animals came,
perhaps, from Asia Minor ; the nations of Mount Taurus,
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs on the
gates of Balawat. The breed here represented seems to have been common
in Urartu, as well as in Cappadocia and Northern Syria.
BUILDINGS OP TIGLATH-PILESER III.
315
who had supplied chargers to Israel and Egypt five
centuries earlier, now furnished war-horses to the
squadrons of Nineveh. The breed was small, but robust,
inured to fatigue and hard usage, and in every way similar
to that raised in these countries at the present day. In
war, horses formed a very considerable proportion of the
TYPICAL CA1TADOCIAX HOUSE. 1
booty taken ; in time of peace, they were used as part of
the payment of the yearly tribute, and a brisk trade in
them was carried on with Mesopotamia. After the king had
deducted from his receipts enough to provide amply for
the wants of his family and court, the salaries of the
various functionaries and officials, the pay and equipment
of his army, the maintenance and construction of palaces
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Alfred Boissier.
316 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
and fortresses, he had still sufficient left over to form
an enormous reserve fund on which he and his successors
might draw in the event of their ordinary sources of
income being depleted by a series of repeated reverses.
Tiglath-pileser thus impressed upon Assyria the character
by which it was known during the most splendid century
of its history, and the organisation which he devised for
it was so admirably adapted to the Oriental genius that it
survived the fall of Nineveh, and served as a model for
every empire-maker down to the close of the Macedonian
era and even beyond it. The
wealth of the country grew
rapidly, owing to the influx
of capital and of foreign
population; in the intervals
between their campaigns its
rulers set to work to remove
all traces of the ruins which had been allowed to accu
mulate during the last forty years. The king had built
himself a splendid palace at Calah, close to the monu
ments of Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III., and its
terraces and walls overhung the waters of the Tigris,
The main entrance consisted of a Bit-khildni, one of
those porticoes, flanked by towers and supported by
columns or pillars, often found in Syrian towns, the
fashion for which was now beginning to spread to Western
Asia. 2 Those discovered at Zinjirli afford fine examples
Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration published by
Luschan.
The precise nature of the edifices referred to in the inscriptions under
A SYKIAN BIT-KHILAXI. 1
THE BIT-KHILANI IN ASSYRIA
317
of the arrangements adopted in buildings of this kind ;
the lower part of the walls was covered with bas-reliefs,
figures of gods and men, soldiers mounted or on foot,
victims and fantastic animal shapes ; the columns, where
there were any, rested on the back of a sphinx or on a
pair of griffins of a type which shows a curious mixture
THE FOUNDATIONS OF A BIT-
KHILAXI AT ZINJIRLI. 1
of Egyptian and Semitic influences. The wood-work of
the Ninevite Bit-khildni was of cedar from Mount Amanus,
the door-frames and fittings were of various rare woods,
the name of Bit-khilani is still a matter of controversy. It has been identified
with the pillared hall, or audience-chamber, such as we find in Sargon s
palace at Khorsabad, and with edifices or portions of edifices which varied
according to the period, but which were ornamented with columns. It seems
clear, however, that it was used of the whole series of chambers and buildings
which formed the monumental gates of Assyrian palaces, something analogous
to the Migdol of Ramses III. at Medinet-Habu, and more especially to the
gates at Zinjirli.
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch published by Luschan.
318 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
inlaid with ivory and metal. The entrance was guarded
by the usual colossal figures, and the walls of the state
reception-rooms were covered with slabs of alabaster; on
these, in accordance with the usual custom, 1 were carved
scenes from the royal wars, with explanatory inscriptions.
The palace was subsequently dismantled, its pictures
defaced and its inscriptions obliterated, 2 to mark the hatred
BASE OF A COLUMN AT
ZINJIRLI. 3
felt by later generations towards the hero whom they were
pleased to regard as a usurper ; we can only partially succeed
in deciphering his annals by the help of the fragmentary
.sentences which have escaped the fury of the destroyer.
The cities and fortresses which he raised throughout the
length and breadth of Assyria proper and its more recently
acquired provinces have similarly disappeared ; we can
1 The building of Tiglath-pileser s palace is described in the Nimroud
Inscription. It stood near the centre of the platform of Nimroud.
The materials were utilised by Esarhacldon, but it does not necessarily
follow that the palace was dismantled by that monarch ; this was probably
done by Sargon or by Sennacherib.
3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph published by Luschan.
THE CITY OF DUR-BEL HARR AN-BELUZUR 319
only conjecture that the nobles of his court, fired by his
example, must have built and richly endowed more than
one city on their hereditary estates, or in the territories
under their rule. Bel-harran-beluzur, the marshal of the
palace, who twice gave his name to years of the king s
reign, viz. in 741 and 727 B.C., possessed, it would seem,
an important fief a little to the north of Assur, near the
banks of the Tharthar, on the site of the present Tel-Abta.
The district was badly cultivated, and little better than a
wilderness ; by express order of the celestial deities
Marduk, Nabu, Shamash, Sin, and the two Ishtars he
dag the foundations of a city which he called Dur-Bel-
harran-beluzur. The description he gives of it affords
conclusive evidence of the power of the great nobles, and
shows how nearly they approached, by their wealth and
hereditary privileges, to the kingly rank. He erected, we
are told, a ziggurat on a raised terrace, in which he placed
his gods in true royal fashion ; he assigned slaves, landed
property, and a yearly income to their priests, in order
that worship might be paid to them in perpetuity ; he
granted sanctuary to all freemen who settled within the
walls or in the environs, exemption from forced labour,
and the right to tap a water-course and construct a canal.
A decree of foundation was set up in the temple in memory
of Bel-harran-beluzur, precisely as if he were a crowned
king. It is a stele of common grey stone with a circular
top. The dedicator stands erect against the background
of the carving, bare-foot and bare-headed, his face clean
shaven, dressed in a long robe embroidered in a chess
board pattern, and with a tunic pleated in horizontal
320 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
rows ; his right elbow is supported by the left hand,
while the right is raised to a level with his eyes, his
fist is clenched, and the thumb inserted between the first
and second fingers
in the customary
gesture of adora
tion. What the pro
vost of the palace
had done on his land,
the other barons in
all probability did
on theirs ; most of
the departments
which had fallen
away and languished
during the disturb
ances at the close
of the previous
dynasty, took a new
lease of life under
their protection.
Private documents
which increase in
number as the cen
tury draws to an end contracts, official reports, and
letters of scribes, all give us the impression of a wealthy
and industrous country, stirred by the most intense
activity, and in the enjoyment of unexampled prosperity.
The excellent administration of Tiglath-pileser and his
1 Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph published by Father Scheih
STELE OF BEL-HARRAX-BELUZUK. 1
BEL-HARRAN-BELCJZUR 321
nobles had paved the way for this sudden improvement,
and had helped to develop it, and when Shalmaneser V.
succeeded his father on the throne it continued unchecked. 1
The new-comer made no changes in the system of govern
ment which had been so ably inaugurated. He still kept
Assyria separate from Karduniash ; his Babylonian subjects,
faithful to ancient custom, soon devised a nickname for
him, that of Ululai, as though seeking to persuade them
selves that they had a king who belonged to them alone ;
and it is under this name that their annalists have in
scribed him next to Pulu in the list of their dynasties.-
His reign was, on the whole, a calm and peaceful one ;
the Kalda, the Medes, Urartu, and the races of Mount
Taurus remained quiet, or, at any rate, such disorders
as may have arisen among them were of too trifling a
nature to be deemed worthy of notice in the records of
the time. Syria alone was disturbed, and several of its
independent states took advantage of the change of rulers
to endeavour to shake off the authority of Assyria.
It was, for a long time, an open question with the earlier Assyriologists
whether or not Shalmaneser and Sargon were different names for one and
the same monarch. As for monuments, we possess only one attributed to
Shalmaneser, a weight iu the form of a lion, discovered by Layard at Nim-
roud, in the north-west palace. The length of his reign, and the scanty
details we possess concerning it, have been learnt from the Epomjm Canon
and Pinches Babylonian Chronicle, arid also from the Hebrew texts (2 Kings
xvii. 3-6 ; xviii. 9-12).
The identity of Ululai and Shalrnaneser V., though still questioned by
Oppert, has been proved by the comparison of Babylonian records, in some
of which the names Pulu and Ululai occur in positions exactly correspond
ing with those occupied, in others, by Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser. The
name Ululai was given to the king because he was born in the month of
Ulul ; in Pinches list we find a gloss, "Dynasty of Tinu," which probably
VOL. VII. Y
322 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Egypt continued to give them secret encouragement
in these tactics, though its own internal dissensions
prevented it from offering any effective aid. The Tanite
dynasty was in its death-throes. Psamuti, the last of
its kings, exercised a dubious sovereignty over but a
few of the nomes on the Arabian frontier. 1 His neigh
bours the Saites were gradually gaining the upper hand
in the Delta and in the fiefs of middle Egypt, at first
under Tafnakhti, and then, after his death, under his son
Bukunirinif, Bocchoris of the Greek historians. They
held supremacy over several personages who, like them
selves, claimed the title and rank of Pharaoh; amongst
others, over a certain Eudamanu Miamun, son of Osorkon :
their power did not, however, extend beyond Siut, near
the former frontier of the Theban kingdom. The with
drawal of Pionkhi- Miamun, and his subsequent death,
had not disturbed the Ethiopian rule in the southern
half of Egypt, though it somewhat altered its character.
While an unknown Ethiopian king filled the place of
the conquerer at Napata, another Ethiopian, named
Kashta, made his way to the throne in Thebes. It is
possible that he was a son of Pionkhi, and may have
been placed in supreme power by his father when the
latter reinstated the city in its place as capital. With
all their partiality for real or supposed descendants of the
indicates the Assyrian town in which Tiglath-pileser III. and his son were
"born.
1 He is the Psammous mentioned by Manetho. The cartouches
attributed to him by Lepsius really belong to the Psammuthis of the XXIX th
dynasty. It is possible that one of the marks found at Karnak indicating
the level of the Nile belong to the reign of this monarch.
.
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2
THE KUSHITE INVASION OP EGYPT
323
Kamesside dynasty, the Thebans were, before all things,
proud of their former greatness, and eagerly hoped to
regain it without delay. When, therefore, they accepted
this Kushite king who, to their eyes, represented the
only family possessed of a legitimate claim to the throne,
it was mainly because they counted on him to restore them
to their former place among the cities of Egypt. They must
have been cruelly disappointed when he left them for the
Sacred Mountain. His invasion, far
from reviving their prosperity, merely
served to ratify the suppression of that
pontificate of Amon-Ka which was
the last remaining evidence of their
past splendour. All hope of re-estab
lishing it had now to be abandoned,
since the sovereign who had come to
them from Napata was himself by birth
and hereditary privilege the sole priest of Amon : in his
absence the actual head of the Theban religion could lay
claim only to an inferior office, and indeed, even then,
the only reason for accepting a second prophet was that
he might direct the worship of the temple at Karnak.
The force of circumstances compelled the Ethiopians
to countenance in the Thebaid what their Tanite or
Bubastite predecessors had been obliged to tolerate at
Hermopolis, Heracleopolis, Sais, and in many another
lesser city ; they turned it into a feudatory kingdom,
and gave it a ruler who, like Autti, half a century earlier,
had the right to use the cartouches. Once installed,
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Prisse d Avennes.
CONE BEAKIJSG THE NAME
OF KASHTA AND OF HIS
DAUGHTER AMENEKTAS. 1
324 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Kashta employed the usual methods to secure his seat
on the throne, one of the first being a marriage alliance.
The disappearance of the high priests had naturally in
creased the importance of the princesses consecrated to
the service of Amon. From henceforward they were
the sole visible intermediaries between the god and his
people, the privileged guardians of his body and his
double, and competent to perpetuate the line of the
solar kings. The Theban appanage constituted their dowry,
and even if their sex prevented them from discharging
all those civil, military, and religious duties required by
their position, no one else had the right to do so on
their behalf, unless he was expressly chosen by them
for the purpose. When once married they deputed
their husbands to act for them ; so long as they re
mained either single or widows, some exalted personage,
the prophet of Amon or Montu, the ruler of Thebes,
or the administrator of the Said, managed their houses
and fiefs for them with such show of authority that
strangers were at times deceived, and took him for the
reigning monarch of the country. 1 The Pharaohs had,
therefore, a stronger incentive than ever to secure exclusive
possession of these women, and if they could not get
all of them safely housed in their harems, they en
deavoured, at any rate, to reserve for themselves the
chief among them, who by purity of descent or seniority
1 Thus Harua, in the time of Amenertas, was prince and chief over the
servants of the " Divine Worshipper." Mantumihait, in the time of
Taharqa and of Tanuatamanu, was ruler of Thebes, and fourth prophet of
Amon, and it is he who is described in the Assyrian monuments as King of
Thebes.
EGYPT IN THE TIME OF SHALMANESER V. 325
in age had attained the grade of Divine Worshipper.
Kashta married a certain Shapenuapit, daughter of
Osorkon III. and a Theban pallacide ; l it is uncertain
whether he eventually became king over Ethiopia and
the Sudan or not. So far, we have no proof that he did,
but it seems quite possible when w r e remember that one
of his children, Shabaku (Sabaco), subsequently occupied
the throne of Napata in addition to that of Thebes. Kashta
does not appear to have possessed sufficient energy to
prevent the Delta and its nomes from repudiating the
Ethiopian supremacy. The Saites, under Tafnakhti or
Bocchoris, soon got the upper hand, and it was to them
that the Syrian vassals of Nineveh looked for aid, when
death removed the conqueror who had trampled them so
ruthlessly underfoot. Ever since the fall of Arpad,
Hadrach, and Damascus, Shabarain, a town situated some
where in the valley of the Orontes or of the Upper Litany, 2
and hitherto but little known, had served as a rallying-
point for the disaffected Aramaean tribes : on the accession
of Shalrnaneser V. it ventured to rebel, probably in 727 B.C.,
1 It may be that, in. accordance with a custom which obtained during
the generations that followed, and which possibly originated about this
period, this daughter of Osorkon III. was only the adoptive mother of
Amenertas.
2 Shabarain was originally confounded with Samaria by the early com
mentators on the Babylonian Chronicle. Halevy, very happily, referred it to
the biblical Sepharvaim, a place always mentioned in connection with
Hamath and Arpad (2 Kings xvii. 24, 31 ; xviii. 34 ; xix. 13 : cf. Isa. xxxvi.
19; xxxvii. 13), and to the Sibruim of Ezekiel (xlvii. 16), called in the
Septuagint Satnareirn. Its identification with Samaria has, since then, been
generally rejected, and its connection with Sibraim admitted. Sibraim (or
Sepharvaim, or Samareim) has been located at Shomeriyeh, to the east of the
Bahr-Kades, and south of Hamath.
326 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
but was overthrown and destroyed, its inhabitants being
led away captive. This achievement proved, beyond the
possibility of doubt, that in spite of their change of rulers
the vengeance of the Assyrians was as keen and sharp
as ever. Not one of the Syrian towns dared to stir,
and the Phoenician seaports, though their loyalty had
seemed, for a moment, doubtful, took care to avoid any
action which might expose them to the terrors of a like
severity. 1 The Israelites and Philistines, alone of the
western peoples, could not resign themselves to a prudent
policy ; after a short period of hesitation they drew the
sword from its scabbard, and in 725 war broke out. 2
1 The siege of Tyre, which the historian Menander, in a passage
quoted by Josephus, places in the reign of Shalmaneser, ought really to be
referred to the reign of Sennacherib, or the fragment of Menander must
be divided into three parts dealing with three different Assyrian cam
paigns against Tyre, under Tiglath-pileser, Sennacherib, and Esai haddon
respectively.
2 The war cannot have begun earlier, for the Epcmym Canon, in dealing
with 726, has the words " in the country," thus proving that no expedition
took place in that year ; in the case of the year 725, on the other hand, it
refers to a campaign against some country whose name has disappeared.
The passages in the Book of Kings (2 Kings xvii. 1-6, and xviii. 9-1-2) which
deal with the close of the kingdom of Israel, have been interpreted in such
a way as to give us two campaigns by Shalmaneser against Hoshea : (1)
Hoshea having failed to pay the tribute imposed upon him by Tiglath-pileser,
Shalmaneser made war upon him and compelled him to resume its payment
(2 Kings xvii. 1-3) ; (2) Hoshea having intrigued with Egypt, and declined
to pay tribute, Shalmaneser again took the field against him, made him
prisoner, and besieged Samaria for three years (2 Kings xvii. 4-6 ; xviii.
9-12). The first expedition must, in this case, have taken place in 727,
while the second must have lasted from 725-722. Most modern historians
believe that the Hebrew writer has ascribed to Shalmaneser the subjection
of Hoshea which was really the act of Tiglath-pileser, as well as the final
war against Israel. According to Winckler, the two portions of the narrative
HOSHEA AND THE REVOLT OF SAMARIA 327
Hoshea, who had ascended the throne with the consent
of Tiglath-pileser, was unable to keep them quiet. The
whole of Galilee and Gilead was now an Assyrian province,
subject to the governor of Damascus ; Jerusalem, Moab,
Ammon, and the Bedawiu had transferred their allegiance
to Nineveh ; and Israel, with merely the central tribes of
Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin left, was now barely
equal in area and population to Judah. Their tribute
weighed heavily on the Israelites ; passing armies had laid
waste their fields, and townsmen, merchants, and nobles
alike, deprived of their customary resources, fretted with
impatience under the burdens and humiliations imposed
on them by their defeat ; convinced of their helplessness,
they again looked beyond their own borders for some
nation or individual who should restore to them their lost
prosperity. Amid the tottering fortunes of their neigh
bours, Egypt alone stood erect, and it was, therefore, to
Egypt that they turned their eyes. Negotiations were
opened, not with Pharaoh himself, but with Shabi, one of
the petty kings on the eastern frontier of the Delta, whose
position made him better qualified than any other to deal
with Syrian affairs. 1 Hannon of Gaza had by this time
returned from exile, and it was, doubtless, owing to Shabi s
support that he had been able to drive out the Assyrian
must have been borrowed from two different versions of the final war, which
the final editor inserted one after the other, heedless of the contradictions
contained in them.
1 This individual is called Sua, Seveh, and So in the Hebrew text (2 Kings
xvii. 4), and the Septuagint gives the transliteration Sebek side by side with
Seg6s. He is found again under the forms Shibahi, Shabi, Shabe, in Sargon s
inscriptions.
328 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
generals and recover his crown. 1 The Israelite aristocracy
was led away by his example, but Shalmaneser hastened
to the spot before the Egyptian bowmen had time to cross
the isthmus. Hoshea begged for mercy, and was deported
into Assyria and condemned to lifelong imprisonment. 2
Though deserted by her king, Samaria did not despair ;
she refused to open her gates, and, being strongly fortified,
compelled the Assyrians to lay regular siege to the city.
It would seem that at one moment, at the beginning of
operations, when it was rumoured on all sides that Pharaoh
would speedily intervene, Ahaz began to fear for his own
personal safety, and seriously considered whether it would
not be wiser to join forces with Israel or with Egypt. 3
The rapid sequence of events, however, backed by the
counsel of Isaiah, speedily recalled him to a more reason
able view of the situation. The prophet showed him
Samaria spread out before him like one of those wreaths of
flowers which the guests at a banquet bind round their
1 This seems to be the inference from Sargon s inscription, in which he
is referred to as relying on the army of Shabi, the tartan of Egypt.
2 2 Kings xvii. 4.
3 The Second Book of Kings (xviii. 9, 10 ; cf. xvii. 6) places the beginning
of the siege of Samaria in the seventh year of Hoshea ( = fourth year of
Hezekiah), and the capture of the town in the ninth year of Hoshea ( = sixth
year of Hezekiah) ; further on it adds that Sennacherib s campaign against
Hezekiah took place in the fourteenth year of the latter s reign (2 Kings
xviii. 13 ; cf. Isa. xxxvi. 1). Now, Sennacherib s campaign against Heze
kiah took place (as will be shown later on, in vol. viii. Chapter I.) in 702
B.C., and Samaria was captured in 722. The synchronisms in the Hebrew
narrative are therefore fictitious, and rest on no real historical basis at any
rate, in so far as the king who occupied the throne of Judah at the time of
the fall of Samaria is concerned ; Ahaz was still alive at that date, and
continued to reign till 716 or 715, or perhaps only till 720.
THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA 329
brows, and which gradually fade as their wearers drink
deeper and deeper. " Woe to the crown of pride of the
drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his
glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley of
them that are overcome with wine. Behold, the Lord hath
a mighty and strong one ; as a tempest of hail, a destroying
storm, as a tempest of mighty waters overflowing, shall he
cast down to the earth with violence. The crown of the
pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under
foot, and the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which
is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as the first ripe fig
before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it
seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up." While
the cruel fate of the perverse city was being thus accom
plished, Jahveh Sabaoth was to be a crown of glory to those
of His children who remained faithful to Him ; but Judah,
far from submitting itself to His laws, betrayed Him even
as Israel had done. Its prophets and priests were likewise
distraught with drunkenness ; they staggered under the
effects of their potations, and turned to scorn the true
prophet sent to proclaim to them the will of Jehovah.
" Whom," they stammered between their hiccups " whom
will He teach knowledge ? and whom will He make to
understand the message ? them that are weaned from the
milk and drawn from the breasts ? For it is precept upon
precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon
line, here a little and there a little ! And sure enough
it was by the mouth of a stammering people, by the lips
of the Assyrians, that Jahveh was to speak to them. In
vain did the prophet implore them : " This is the rest, give
330 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AXD THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
ye rest to him that is weary; they did not listen to him,
and now Jahveh turns their own gibes against them :
c Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon
line, line upon line, here a little and there a little," "that
they may go and fall backward, and be broken and snared
and taken." There was to be no hope of safety for
Jerusalem unless it gave up all dependence on human
counsels, and trusted solely to God for protection. 1
Samaria was doomed ; this was the general belief, and men
went about repeating it after Isaiah, each in his own
words ; every one feared lest the disaster should spread
to Judah also, and that Jahveh, having once determined
to have done with the northern kingdom, would turn His
wrath against that of the south as well. Micah the
Morashtite, a prophet born among the ranks of the middle
class, went up and down the land proclaiming misery to be
the common lot of the two sister nations sprung from the
loins of Jacob, as a punishment for their common errors
and weaknesses. " The Lord cometh forth out of His
place, and will come and tread upon the high places of the
earth. And the mountains shall be molten under Him,
and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as
waters that are poured down a steep place. For the trans -
1 Isa. xxviii. Giesebrecht has given it as his opinion that only verses
1-6, 23-29 of the prophecy were delivered at this epoch : the remainder
he believes to have been written during Sennacherib s campaign against
Judah, and suggests that the prophet added on his previous oracle to them,
thus diverting it from its original application. Others, such as Stade and
Wellhausen, regard the opening verses as embodying a mere rhetorical
figure. Jerusalem, they say, appeared to the prophet as though changed
into Samaria, and it is this transformed city which he calls " the crown of
pride of the drunkards of Ephraim."
THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAH 331
gression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house
of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob ? is it not
Samaria ? and what are the high places of Judah ? are they
not Jerusalem ? " The doom pronounced against Samaria
was already being carried out, and soon the hapless city
was to be no more than " an heap of the field, and as the
plantings of a vineyard ; and I will pour down the stones
thereof into the valley," saith the Lord, " and I will dis
cover the foundations thereof. And all her graven images
shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned
with fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate ; for of the
hire of an harlot hath she gathered them, and into the
hire of an harlot shall they return." Yet, even while
mourning over Samaria, the prophet cannot refrain from
thinking of his own people, for the terrible blow which had
fallen on Israel "is come even unto Judah; it reacheth
tinto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem." Doubt
less the Assyrian generals kept a watchful eye upon Ahaz
during the whole time of the siege, from 724 to 722, and
when once the first heat of enthusiasm had cooled, the
presence of so formidable an army within striking distance
must have greatly helped the king to restrain the ill-
advised tendencies of some of his subjects. Samaria still
held out when Shalmaneser died at Babylon in the month
of Tebeth, 722. Whether he had no son of fit age to
succeed him, or whether a revolution, similar to that which
had helped to place Tiglath-pileser on the throne, broke out
as soon as he had drawn his last breath, is not quite clear.
At any rate, Sargon, an officer who had served under him,
i MicaJi i 3-9.
332 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
was proclaimed king on the 22nd day of Tebeth, and his
election was approved by the whole of Assyria. After
some days of hesitation, Babylon declined to recognise
him, and took the oath of allegiance to a Kaldu named
Marduk-abalidinna, or Merodach-baladan. While these
events were taking place in the heart of the empire,
Samaria succumbed ; perhaps to famine, but more probably
to force. It was sacked and dismantled, and the bulk of
its population, amounting to 27,280 souls, were carried
away into Mesopotamia and distributed along the Balikh,
the Khabur, the banks of the river of Gozan, and
among the towns of the Median frontier. 1 Sargon
made the whole territory into a province ; an Assyrian
governor was installed in the palace of the kings of
Israel, and soon the altars of the strange gods smoked
triumphantly by the side of the altars of Jahveh (722
B.C.). 2
1 Sargon does not mention where he deported the Israelites to, but we learn
this from the Second Book of Kings (xvii. 6 ; xviii. 11). There has been much
controversy as to whether Samaria was taken by Shalmaneser, as the Hebrew
chronicler seems to believe (2 Kings xvii. 3-6 ; xviii. 9, 10), or by Sargon, as
the Assyrian scribes assure us. At first, several scholars suggested a solution
of the difficulty by arguing that Shalmaneser and Sargon were one and the
same person ; afterwards the theory took shape that Samaria was really
captured in the reign of Shalmaneser, but by Sargon, who was in command
of the besieging army at the time, and who transferred this achievement, of
which he was naturally proud, to the beginning of his own reign. The
simplest course seems to be to accept for the present the testimony of
contemporary documents, and place the fall of Samaria at the beginning
of the reign of Sargon, being the time indicated by Sargon in his
inscriptions.
2 2 Kings xvii. 24-41, a passage to which I shall have occasion to refer
farther on in the present volume. The following is a list of the kings of
Israel, after the division of the tribes :
DESTRUCTION OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL 333
Thus fell Samaria, and with Samaria the kingdom of
Israel, and with Israel the last of the states which had
aspired, with some prospect of success, to rule over Syria.
They had risen one after another during the four centuries
in which the absence of the stranger had left them masters
of their own fate the Hittites in the North, the Hebrews
and the Philistines in the South, and the Aramaeans and
Damascus in the centre ; each one of these races had
enjoyed its years of glory and ambition in the course of
which it had seemed to prevail over its rivals. Then those
whose territory lay at the extremities began to feel the
disadvantages of their isolated position, and after one or
two victories gave up all hope of ever establishing a
supremacy over the whole country. The Hittite sphere of
influence never at any time extended much further south
wards than the sources of the Orontes, while that of the
Hebrews in their palmiest days cannot have gone beyond
the vicinity of Hamath. And even progress thus far had
cost both Hebrews and Hittites a struggle so exhausting
that they could not long maintain it. No sooner did they
relax their efforts, than those portions of Coele-Syria which
they had annexed to their original territory, being too
I. JEROBOAM I.
II. NADAB.
III. BAASHA.
IV. ELAII.
V. ZlMRI.
VI. OMKI.
VII. ARAB.
XI. JEHOAHAZ.
I XII. JEHOASH.
_l I
VIII. AHAZIAH. XIII. JEROBOAM II.
IX. JORAM. XIV. ZECHARIAH.
X. JEHU. XV. SHALU-M.
XVI. MENAHEM.
XVII. PSKAHIAH.
XVIII. PEKAH.
XIX. HOSHEA.
[la this table father and son are shown by a perpendicular line. The king s
name in italics signifies that he died a violent death. TR.]
334 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
remote from the seat of power to feel its full attraction,
gradually detached themselves and resumed their indepen
dence, their temporary suzerains being too much exhausted
by the intensity of their own exertions to retain hold over
SARGOX OF ASSYRIA AND HIS VIZIER. 1
them. Damascus, which lay almost in the centre, at an
equal distance from the Euphrates and the "river of
Egypt," could have desired no better position for grouping
the rest of Syria round her. If any city had a chance of
establishing a single kingdom, it was Damascus, and
Damascus alone. But lulled to blissful slumbers in her
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Flandin.
DESTRUCTION OP THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL 335
shady gardens, she did not awake to political life and to the
desire of conquest until after all the rest, and at the very
moment when Nineveh was beginning to recover from her
early reverses. Both Ben-hadads had had a free hand
given them during the half-century which followed, and
they had taken advantage of this respite to reduce Ccele-
Syria, the Lebanon, Arvadian Phoenicia, Hamath, and the
Hebrews in fact, two -thirds of the whole country to
subjection, and to organise that league of the twelve kings
which reckoned Ahab of Israel among its leaders. This
rudimentary kingdom had scarcely come into existence,
and its members had not yet properly combined, when
Shalmaneser III. arose and launched his bands of veterans
against them ; it however successfully withstood the shock,
and its stubborn resistance at the beginning of the struggle
shows us what it might have done, had its founders been
allowed time in which to weld together the various
elements at their disposal. As it was, it was doomed to
succumb not so much to the superiority of the enemy as
to the insubordination of its vassals and its own internal
discords. The league of the twelve kings did not survive
Ben-hadad II. ; Hazael and his successors wore themselves
out in repelling the attacks of the Assyrians and in
repressing the revolts of Israel ; when Tiglath-pileser III.
arrived on the scene, both princes and people, alike at
Damascus and Samaria, were so spent that even their final
alliance could not save them from defeat. Its lack of
geographical unity and political combination had once
more doomed Syria to the servitude of alien rule ; the
Assyrians, with methodical procedure, first conquered and
336 TIGLATH-PILESER III. AND THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
then made vassals of all those states against which they
might have hurled their battalions in vain, had not fortune
kept them divided instead of uniting them in a compact
mass under the sway of a single ruler. From Carchemish
to Arpad, from Hamath to Damascus and Samaria, their
irresistible advance had led the Assyrians on towards
Egypt, the only other power which still rivalled their
prestige in the eyes of the world ; and now, at Gaza, on the
frontier between Africa and Asia, as in days gone by on the
banks of the Euphrates or the Balikh, these two powers
waited face to face, hand on hilt, each ready to stake the
empire of the Asiatic world on a single throw of the dice.
SARGON OF ASSYRIA (722-705 B.C.).
SARGON AS A WARRIOR AND AS A BUILDER.
The origin of Sargon II. : the revolt of Babylon, Merodach-baladan and
Elam The kingdom of Elam from the time of the first Babylonian empire ; the
conquests of Shutruk-nakhunta I. ; the princes of Malamir The first encounter
of Assyria and Elam, the battle of Durilu (721 B.C.) Eevolt of Syria, laubidi
of Hamath and Eannon of Gaza Bocchoris and the XXIV th Egyptian
dynasty ; the first encounter of Assyria with Egypt, the battle of Raphia
(720 B.C.).
Urartu and the coalition of the peoples of the north-east and north-west-
Defeat ofZilcartu (719 B.C.), of the Tabal.(7l8), of the Khdti (717), of the
Mannai, of the Medes and Ellipi (716), and of the Medes (715) Commencement
of XXV th Ethiopian dynasty: Sabaco (716) The fall of Urzana and Eusas
(714) and the formation of an Assyrian province in Cappadocia (713-710)
The revolt and fall of Ashdod.
The defeat of Merodach-baladan and of Shutruk-nakhunta II. : Sargon
conquers Babylon (7 10-709 B.C.) Success of the Assyrians at Mushki : homage
VOL. VII. Z
( 338 )
of the Greeks of Cyprus (710) The buildings of Sargon : Dur-sharruldn The
gates and walls of Dur-sliarrukln ; the city and its population The royal
palace, its courts, the ziggurdt, the harem Revolt of Rummulth (709 B.C.) and
of Ellipi (708 B.C.) Inauguration of Dur sharruJcin (706 B.C.) Murder of
Sargon (705 B.C.) : his character.
THE MOUXD OF KHORSABAD, BEFORE BOTTA. s EXCAVATIONS. 1
CHAPTER III
SARGON OF ASSYRIA (722-7O5 B.C.)
Sargon as a warrior and as a builder.
WHETHER Sargon was even re
motely connected with the royal
line, is a question which for the
present must remain unanswered. He
mentions in one of his inscriptions the
three hundred princes who had pre
ceded him in the government of
Assyria, and three lines further on
he refers to the kings his ancestors,
but he never mentions his own father
by name, and this omission seems
to prove that he was not a direct
1 Drawn by Boudier, after Flandin. The vignette is copied by Faucher-
Gudin.
340 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
descendant of Shalmaneser V., nor of Tiglath-pileser III.
nor indeed of any of their immediate predecessors. It is,
however, probable, if not certain, that he could claim
some sort of kinship with them, though more or less
remote. It was customary for the sovereigns of Nineveh
to give their daughters in marriage to important officials
or lords of their court, and owing to the constant con
traction of such alliances through several centuries, there
was hardly a noble family but had some royal blood
in its veins ; and that of SaTgon was probably no ex
ception to the rule. His genealogy was traced by the
chroniclers, through several hundred generations of princes,
to the semi-mythical heroes who had founded the city
of Assur ; but as Assur-nazir-pal and his descendants
had claimed Bel-kapkapi and Sulili as the founders of
their race, the Sargonids chose a different tradition, and
drew their descent from Belbani, son of Adasi. The
cause and incidents of the revolution which raised Sargon
to the throne are unknown, but we may surmise that
the policy adopted with regard to Karduniash was a factor
in the case. Tiglath-pileser had hardly entered Babylon
before the fascination of the city, the charm of its
associations, and the sacred character of the legends
which hallowed it, seized upon his imagination ; he re
turned to it twice in the space of two years to "take the
hands of Bel," and Shalmaneser V. much preferred it to
Calah or Nineveh as a place of residence. The Assyrians
doubtless soon became jealous of the favour shown by
their princes to their ancient enemy, and their discontent
must have doubtless conduced to their decision to raise
HIS ORIGIN AND THE REVOLT OF BABYLON 341
a new monarch to the throne. The Babylonians, on the
other hand, seern to have realised that the change in
the dynasty presaged a disadvantageous alteration of
government; for as soon as the news reached them a
movement was set on foot and search made for a
rival claimant to set up in opposition to Sargon. 1
Of all the nations who had in turn occupied the
plains of the Lower Euphrates and the marshes border
ing on Arabia, the Kalda alone had retained their full
vitality. They were constantly recruited by immigrants
from their kinsfolk of the desert, and the continual infil
tration of these semi-barbarous elements kept the race
from becoming enervated by contact with the indigenous
population, and more than compensated for the losses
in their ranks occasioned by war. The invasion of
Tiglath-pileser and the consequent deportations of prisoners
had decimated the tribes of Bit-Shilani, Bit-Shaali, and
Bit-Amuhkani, the principalities of the Kalda which lay
nearest to Babylonian territory, and which had borne
the brunt of attack in the preceding period ; but their
weakness brought into notice a power better equipped
for warfare, whose situation in their rear had as a rule
1 The succession of events, as indicated in Pinches Babylonian Chronicle,
seems indeed to imply that the. Babylonians waited to ascertain the dis
position of the new king before they decided what line to adopt. In fact,
Shalmaneser died in the month Tebeth, and Sargon ascended the throne at
Assur in the same month, and it was only in the month Nisan that Mero-
dach-baladan was proclaimed king. The three months intervening between
the accession of Sargon and that of Merodach-baladan evidently represent a
period of indecision, when it was not yet known if the king would follow the
policy of his predecessors with regard to Babylon, or adopt a different attitude
towards her.
342 SARGOX II. OF ASSYRIA
hitherto preserved it from contact with the Assyrians,
namely, Blt-Yakin. The continual deposit of alluvial soil
at the mouths of the rivers had greatly altered the coast
line from the earliest historic times downwards. The
ancient estuary was partly filled up, especially on the
western side, where the Euphrates enters the Persian
Gulf : a narrow barrier of sand and silt extended between
the marshes of Arabia and Susiana, at the spot where
the streams of fresh water met the tidal waters of the
sea, and all that was left of the ancient gulf was a vast
lagoon, or, as the dwellers on the banks called it, a kind
of brackish river, Ndr marratwn. Bit-Yakin occupied the
southern and western portions of this district, from the
mouth of the Tigris to the edge of the desert. The
aspect of the country was constantly changing, and pre
sented no distinctive features ; it was a region difficult
to attack and easy to defend; it consisted first of a
spongy plain, saturated with water, with scattered artificial
mounds on which stood the clustered huts of the villages ;
between this plain and the shore stretched a labyrinth
of fens and peat-bogs, irregularly divided by canals
and channels freshly formed each year in flood-time,
meres strewn with floating islets, immense reed-beds
where the neighbouring peasants took refuge from
attack, and into which no one would venture to
penetrate without hiring some friendly native as a
guide. In this fenland dwelt the Kalda in their low,
small conical huts of reeds, somewhat resembling giant
beehives, and in all respects similar to those which the
Bedawin of Irak inhabit at the present day. Dur-Yakln,
MERODACH-BALADAN OF BIT-YAKIN AND ELAM 343
their capital, was probably situated on the borders of
the gulf, near the Euphrates, in such a position as to
command the mouths of the river. Merodach-baladau,
who was King of Bit-Yak in at the time of Sargon s
accession, had become subject to Assyria in 729 B.C.,
ASSYRIAN SOLDIEKS PURSUING KALDA REFUGEES IN A BED OF REEDS. 1
and had paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser, but he was
nevertheless the most powerful chieftain who had borne
rule over the Chaldeans since the death of Ukinzir. 2
4
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief reproduced in Layard.
2 Dur-Yakin was situated on the shores of the Persian gulf, as is proved
by a passage in the Bull Inscription, where it is stated that Sargon threw
into the sea the corpses of the soldiers killed during the siege ; the neighbour
hood of the Euphrates is implied in the text of the Inscription des Pastes,
and the Annals, where the measures taken by Merodach-baladan to defend
344
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
It was this prince whom the Babylonians chose to succeed
Shalmaneser V. He presented himself before the city,
was received with acclamation, and prepared without delay
to repulse any hostilities on the part of the Assyrians.
A REED-HUT OF THE BEDAWIN OF IRAK. 1
He found a well-disposed ally in Elain. From very
ancient times the masters of Susa had aspired to the
possession of Mesopotamia or the suzerainty over it, and
his capital are described. The name of Bit-Yakin, and probably also that of
Dur-Yakin, have been preserved to us in the name of Aginis or Aginne, the
name of a city mentioned by Strabo, and by the historians of Alexander.
Its site is uncertain, but can be located near the present town of Kornah.
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph in Peters.
THE MASTERS OF SUSA 345
fortune had several times favoured their ambitious designs.
On one occasion they had pressed forward their victorious
arms as far as the Mediterranean, and from that time
forward, though the theatre of their operations was more
restricted, they had never renounced the right to interfere
in Babylonian affairs, and indeed, not long previously,
one of them had reigned for a period of seven years in
Babylon in the interval between two dynasties. Our
information with regard to the order of succession and the
history of these energetic and warlike monarchs is as yet
very scanty ; their names even are for the most part lost, and
only approximate dates can be assigned to those of whom
we catch glimpses from time to time. 1 Khumban-numena,
the earliest of whom we have any record, exercised a
doubtful authority, from Anshan to Susa, somewhere about
the fourteenth century B.C., and built a temple to the god
Kirisha in his capital, Liyan. 2 His son Undasgal carried
on the works begun by his father, but that is all the
1 These names are in the majority of cases found written on stamped and
baked bricks. They were first compared with the names contained in the
Annals of Sargon and his successors, and assimilated to those of the princes
who were contemporary with Sennacherib and Assur-bani-pal ; then they
were referred to the time of the great Elamite empire, and one of them was
identified with that Kudur-Nakhunta who had pillaged Uruk 1635 years
before Assur-bani-pal. Finally, they were brought down again to an inter
mediate period, more precisely, to the fourteenth or thirteenth century B.C.
This last date appears to be justified, at least as the highest permissible, by
the mention of Durkurigalzu, in a text of Undasgal.
2 Jensen was the first to recognise that Liyan was a place-name, and the
inscriptions of Shilkhak-Inshusinak add that Liyan was the capital of the
kingdom ; perhaps it was the name of a part of Susa. Khumban-numena
has left us no monuments of his own, but he is mentioned on those of his
son.
340
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
information the inscriptions afford concerning him, and
the mist of oblivion which for a moment lifted and
allowed us to discern dimly the outlines of this sovereign,
closes in again and hides everything from our view for
the succeeding forty or fifty years. About the thirteenth
century a gleam
once more pierces
the darkness, and
a race of warlike
and pious kings
emerges into view
Khalludush-In-
shushinak, his
son Shutruk-nak-
hunta, the latter s
two sons, Kutur-
nakhunta and
Shilkhak - Inshu-
shinak, 1 and then
perhaps a certain
BKICK BEARING THE XAME OF THE SUSIAX KISG SHILKHAK- Jiif j r
INSHUSHIXAK. 2
The inscriptions
on their bricks boast of their power, their piety, and their
inexhaustible wealth. One after another they repaired and
enlarged the temple built by Khurnban-numena at Liyan,
erected sanctuaries and palaces at Susa, fortified their
1 The order of succession of these princes is proved by the genealogies
with which their bricks are covered. Jensen has shown that we ought to
read Khalludush-Inshushinak and Shilkhak-Inshushinak, instead of the
shorter forms Khalludush and Shilkhak read previously.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Marcel Dieulafoy,
THE CONQUESTS OF SHUTRUK-NAKHUNTA I. 347
royal citadel, and ruled over Habardip and the Cossaeans
as well as over Anshan and Elam. They vigorously con
tested the possession of the countries on the right bank
of the Tigris with the Babylonians, and Shutruk-nakhunta
even succeeded in conquering Babylon itself. He deprived
Zamama-shumiddin, the last but one of the Cossa3an
kings, of his sceptre and his life, placed his own son
Kutur-nakhunta on the throne, and when the vanquished
Babylonians set up Bel-nadinshumu as a rival sovereigD,
he laid waste Karduniash with fire and sword. After the
death of Bel-nadinshumu, the Pash princes continued
to offer resistance, but at first without success. Shutruk-
nakhunta had taken away from the temple of Esagilla
the famous statue of Bel-Merodach, whose hands had
to be taken by each newly elected king of Babylon, and
had carried it off in his waggons to Elam, together with
much spoil from the cities on the Euphrates. 1 Nebu
chadrezzar I. brought the statue back to Babylon after
many vicissitudes, and at the same time recovered most
of his lost provinces, but he had to leave at Susa the
bulk of the trophies which had been collected there in
course of the successful wars. One of these represented
the ancient hero Naram-sin standing, mace in hand, on
the summit of a hill, while his soldiers forced their way
1 The name of the king is destroyed on the Babylonian document, but
the mention of Kutur-nakhunta as his son obliges us, till further information
comes to light, to recognise in him the Shutruk-nakhunta of the bricks of
Susa, who also had a son Kutur-nakhunta. This would confirm the restoration
of Shutruk-nakhunta as the name of a sovereign who boasts, in a mutilated
inscription, that he had pushed his victories as far as the Tigris, and even up
to the Euphrates.
348
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
up the slopes, driving before them the routed hosts of
Susa. Shutruk-nakhunta left the figures and names un
touched, but carved in one corner of the bas-relief a
dedicatory inscription, trans
forming this ancient proof of
Babylonian victories over
Elam into a trophy of Elamite
victories over Babylon. His
descendants would assuredly
have brought Mesopotamia
into lasting subjection, had
not the feudal organisation
of their empire tolerated the
existence of contemporary
local dynasties, the members
of which often disputed the
supreme authority with the
rightful king. The dynasty
which ruled Habardip J seems
to have had its seat of
government at Tarrishain the
1111*66
BAS-RELIEF OF NARAM-SIN, TRANSPORTED
TO SUSA BY siiuTBUK-*AKHuxTA.3 hundred figures carved singly
or in groups on the rocks of Kul-Firaun portray its
princes and their ministers in every posture of adoration,
1 The prince represented on. the bas-reliefs gives himself the title Apirra,
the name of Apir, Apirti, or Habardip.
Tarrisha is the name of a town, doubtless the capital of the fief of
Malamir ; it is probably represented by the considerable ruins which Layarcl
identified as the remains of the Sassanid city of Aidej.
3 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.
THE PRINCES OF MALAMIR
349
but most of them have no accompanying inscription. One
large bas-relief, however, forms an exception, and from its
legend we learn the name of Khanni, son of Takhkhi-
khikhutur. 1 This prince, even if possessed of no royal
THE GKEAT KOCK BAS-RELIEF OF MALAillU.-
protocol, was none the less a powerful and wealthy person
age. His figure dominates the picture, the central space of
which it completely fills ; 3 his expression is calm, but
1 The name of Khanni has been explained by Sayce as tlie desirable, and
that of his father, Takhkhi-khikhutur, as help this thy servant.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Babin and Houssay.
3 Perrot and Chipiez, misled by the analogy of the Hittite bas-relief at
Ibriz, took the largest figure for the image of a god. The inscription
350 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
somewhat severe. His head is covered by a low cap, from
which long locks escape and flow over his shoulders ;
the hair on his face is symmetrically curled above the
level of his mouth, and terminates in a pointed beard.
The figure is clothed from head to foot in a stiff robe
and mantle adorned with tufted fringes, and borders of
embroidered rosettes ; a girdle at the waist completes
the misleading resemblance to the gala-dress of a Ninevite
monarch. The hands are crossed on the breast in an
attitude of contemplation, wbile the prince gazes thought
fully at a sacrifice which is being offered on his behalf.
At the bottom of the picture stands a small altar, behind
which a priest in a short tunic seems to be accomplish
ing some ceremonial rite, while two men are cutting
the throat of a ram. Higher up the heads of three rams
lie beside their headless trunks, which are resting on the
ground, feet in the air, while a servant brandishes a short
sword with which he is about to decapitate the fourth
beast. Above these, again, three musicians march in
procession, one playing on a harp, another on a five-
stringed lyre, and the third on a tambourine. An at
tendant holding a bow, and the minister Shutsururazi,
stand quietly waiting till the sacrifice is accomplished.
The long text which runs across several of the figures
is doubtless a prayer, and contains the names of peoples
and princes mingled with those of deities. The memory
of these provincial chiefs would be revived, and more
engraved on the robe, U Khanni shnJc TattJii-ltWmtur , " I am Khanni, son
of Takhkhi-khikhutur," leaves no doubt that the figure represents the prince
,
himself, and not a divinity.
THE SEMI-NOMADIC TRIBES ON THE TIGRIS 351
of their monuments discovered, if the mountains and
inaccessible valleys of ancient Elam could be thoroughly
explored: it is evident, from the small portion of their
history which has been brought to light, that they must
have been great sources of trouble to the dynasties
which reigned in Susa, and that their revolts must often
have jeopardised the safety of the empire, in spite of
the assistance afforded by the Aramaeans from the tenth
or eleventh centuries onwards. All the semi-nomadic
tribes which densely peopled the banks of the Tigris,
and whose advance towards the north had been temporarily
favoured by the weakness of Assyria the Gambulu, the
Pukudu, the Eutu, and the Itua had a natural tendency
to join forces with Elam for the purpose of raiding the
wealthy cities of Chaldaea, and this alliance, or subjec
tion, as it might be more properly termed, always insured
them against any reprisals on the part of their victims. The
unknown king who dwelt at Susa in 745 B.C. committed
the error of allowing Tiglath-pileser to crush these allies.
Khumban-igash, who succeeded this misguided monarch
in 742 B.C., 1 did not take up arms to defend Bit-Amuk-
kani and the other states of the Kalda from 731 to 729,
but experience must have taught him that he had made
a mistake in remaining an unmoved spectator of their
misfortunes ; for when Merodach-baladan, in quest of
1 The date of his accession is furnished by the passage in Pinches
Babylonian Chronicle, where it is stated that he ascended the throne of Elam
in the fifth year of Nabonazir. The Assyrian and Babylonian scribes
assimilated the Susian b to the in, and also suppressed the initial
aspirate of the Elamite name, writing generally Umman-igash for Khum
ban-igash.
352 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
allies, applied to him, he unhesitatingly promised him his
support. 1
Assyria and Elam had hitherto seldom encountered one
another on the field of battle. A wide barrier of semi-
barbarous states had for a long time held them apart, and
they would have had to cross the territory of the Baby
lonians or the Cossseans before coming into contact with
each other. Tiglath-pileser I., however, had come into
conflict with the northern districts of Elam towards the
end of the twelfth century B.C., and more recently the
campaigns of Assur-nazir-pal, Shalmaneser III., and
Bamman-nirari had frequently brought these sovereigns
into contact with tribes under the influence of Susa ; but
the wiklness and poverty of the country, and the difficulties
it offered to the manosuvres of large armies, had always
prevented the Assyrian generals from advancing far into
its mountainous regions. The annexation of Aramaean
territory beyond the Tigris, and the conquest of Babylon
by Tiglath-pileser III., at length broke through the barrier
and brought the two powers face to face at a point where
they could come into conflict without being impeded by
almost insurmountable natural obstacles, namely, in the
plains of the Umliash and the united basins of the Lower
Ulai and the Uknu. Ten years experience had probably
sufficed to convince Khumban-igash of the dangers to
which the neighbourhood of the Assyrians exposed his
subjects. The vigilant watch which the new-comers kept
over their frontier rendered raiding less easy ; and if one
1 Sargon declares distinctly that Merodach-baladan had invoked the aid
of Khumban-igash.
THE FIRST ENCOUNTER OF ASSYRIA AND ELAM 353
of the border chieftains were inclined to harry, as of old,
an unlucky Babylonian or Cossa?an village, he ran the risk
of an encounter with a well-armed force, or of being
plundered in turn by way of reprisal. An irregular but
abundant source of revenue was thus curtailed, without
taking into consideration the wars to which such incidents
must perforce lead sooner or later. Even unaided the
Elamites considered themselves capable of repelling any
attack ; allied with the Babylonians or the Kalda, they felt
certain of victory in any circumstances. Sargon realised
this fact almost as fully as did the Elamites themselves ; as
soon, therefore, as his spies had forewarned him that an
invasion was imminent, he resolved to take the initiative
and crush his enemies singly before they succeeded in
uniting their forces. Khumban-igash had advanced as far
as the walls of Durilu, a stronghold which commanded
the Umliash, and he there awaited the advent of his allies
before laying siege to the town : it was, however, the
Assyrian army which came to meet him and offered him
battle. The conflict was a sanguinary one, as became an
engagement between such valiant foes, and both sides
claimed the victory. The Assyrians maintained their
ground, forcing the Elamites to evacuate their positions,
and tarried some weeks longer to chastise those of their
Aramaean subjects who had made common cause with
the enemy : they carried away the Tumuna, who had
given up their sheikh into the hands of the emissaries
of the Kalda, and transported the whole tribe, without
Merodach-baladan making any attempt to save his allies,
although his army had not as yet struck a single
VOI. VII. 2 A
35i SARGON II. OP ASSYRIA
blow. 1 Having accomplished this act of vengeance, the
Assyrians suspended operations and returned to Nineveh
to repair their losses, probably intending to make a great
effort to regain the whole of Babylonia in the ensuing year.
Grave events which occurred elsewhere prevented them,
however, from carrying this ambitious project into effect.
The fame of their war against Elam had spread abroad in
the Western provinces of the empire, and doubtless ex
aggerated accounts circulated with regard to the battle of
Durilu had roused the spirit of dissatisfaction in the west.
Sargon had scarcely seated himself securely on a throne
to which he was not the direct heir, when he was menaced
by Elam and repudiated by Chald&a, and it remained to
be seen whether his resources would prove equal to main
taining the integrity of his empire, or whether the example
set by Merodach-baladan would not speedily be imitated
by all who groaned under the Assyrian yoke. Since the
decline of Damascus and Arpad, Hamath had again taken
a prominent place in Northern Syria ; prompt submission
had saved this city from destruction in the time of
Tiglath-pileser III., and it had since prospered under the
foreign rule ; it was, therefore, on Hamath that all hopes
1 The history of this first campaign against Merodach-baladan, which is
found in a mutilated condition in the Annals of Sargon, exists nowhere else
in a complete form, but the facts are very concisely referred to in the Pastes
and in the Cijlinders. The general sequence of events is indicated by
Pinches Babylonian Chronicle, but the author places them in 720 B.C., the
second year of Merodach-baladan, contrary to the testimony of the Annals,
and attributes the victory to the Elarnites in the battle of Durilu, in
deference to Babylonian patriotism. The course of events after the battle
of Durilu seems to prove clearly that the Assyrians remained masters of the
field.
THE SYRIAN REVOLT, IAUBIDI AND BOCCHORIS 355
of deliverance still cherished by rulers and people now
centred. A low-born fellow, a smith named laubidi, rose
in rebellion against the prince of Hamath for being mean-
spirited enough to pay tribute, proclaimed himself king,
and in the space of a few months revived under his
own leadership the coalition which Hadadezer and Eezon
II. had formed in days gone by. Arpad and Blt-Agusi,
Zimyra and Northern Phoenicia, Damascus and its
dependencies, all expelled their Assyrian garrisons, and
Samaria, though still suffering from its overthrow,
summoned up courage to rid itself of its governor.
Meanwhile, Hannon of Gaza, recently reinstated in his
city by Egyptian support, was carrying on negotiations
with a view to persuading Egypt to interfere in the
affairs of Syria. The last of the Tanite Pharaohs,
Psamuti, was just dead, and Bocchoris, who had long
been undisputed master of the Delta, had now ventured
to assume the diadem openly (722 B.C.), a usurpation
which the Ethiopians, fully engaged in the Thebaid and
on the Upper Nile, seemed to regard with equanimity.
As soon as the petty kings and feudal lords had recog
nised his suzerainty, Bocchoris listened favourably to the
entreaties of Hannon, and promised to send an army to
Gaza under the command of his general Shabe\ Sargon,
threatened with the loss of the entire western half of his
empire, desisted for a time from his designs on Babylon,
Khumban-igash was wise enough to refrain from pro
voking an enemy who left him in peace, and Merodach-
baladan did not dare to enter the lists without the support
of his confederate : the victory of Durilu, though it had
356
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
not succeeded iu gaining a province for Nineveh, had
at least secured the south-eastern frontier from attack,
at all events for so long as it should please Sargon to
remain at a distance.
IAUBIDI OF IIAMATII 1JEINQ FLAYED ALIVE.
The league formed by Hamath had not much power
of cohesion. laubidi had assembled his forces and the
contingents of his allies at the town of Qarqar as
Hadadezer had done before : he was completely defeated,
taken prisoner, and flayed alive. His kingdom was
annexed to the Assyrian empire, Qarqar was burnt to
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Flandin.
THE FIRST ENCOUNTER OF ASSYRIA AND EGYPT 357
the ground, the fortifications of Hamath were demolished,
and the city obliged to furnish a force of two hundred
charioteers and six hundred horsemen, probably recruited
from among the families of the upper classes, to serve
as hostages as well as auxiliaries. Arpad, Zimyra,
Damascus, Samaria, all succumbed without serious oppo
sition, and the citizens who had been most seriously
compromised in the revolt paid for their disaffection
with their lives. This success confirmed the neighbour
ing states of Tyre, Sidon, Judah, Ammon, and Moab
in their allegiance, which had shown signs of wavering
since the commencement of hostilities ; but Gaza re
mained unsubdued, and caused the more uneasiness because
it was perceived that behind her was arrayed all the majesty
of the Pharaoh. The Egyptians, slow to bestir themselves,
had not yet crossed the Isthmus when the Assyrians
appeared beneath the walls of Gaza : Hannon, worsted
in a preliminary skirmish, retreated on Eaphia, where
Shabe, the Egyptian general, had at length arrived, and
the decisive battle took place before this town. It was
the first time that the archers and charioteers of the Nile
valley had measured forces with the pikemen and cavalry of
that of the Tigris ; the engagement was hotly contested,
but the generals and soldiers of Bocchoris, fighting ac
cording to antiquated methods of warfare, gave way
before the onset of the Assyrian ranks, who were better
equipped and better led. Shabe fled "like a shepherd
whose sheep had been stolen," Hannon was taken prisoner
and loaded with chains, and Raphia fell into the hands
of the conqueror ; the inhabitants who survived the sack
358 SARGOX II. OF ASSYRIA
of their city were driven into captivity to the number of
9033 men, with their flocks and household goods. The
manifest superiority of Assyria was evident from the first
encounter, but the contest had been so fierce and the
result so doubtful that Sargon did not consider it pru
dent to press his advantage. He judged rightly that
these troops, whom he had not dispersed without con
siderable effort, constituted merely an advanced guard.
Egypt was not like the petty kingdoms of Syria or Asia
Minor, which had but one army apiece, and could not
risk more than one pitched battle. Though Shabe s force
was routed, others would not fail to take its place and
contend as fiercely for the possession of the country,
and even if the Assyrians should succeed in dislodgiug
them and curbing the power of Bocchoris, the fall of
Sais or Memphis, far from putting an end to the war,
would only raise fresh complications. Above Memphis
stretched the valley of the Nile, bristling with fortresses,
Khininsu, Oxyrhynchus, Herinopolis, Siut, Thinis, and
Thebes, the famous city of Amon, enthroned on the banks
of the river, whose very name still evoked in the minds
of the Asiatics a vivid remembrance of all its triumphal
glories. 1 Thebes itself formed merely one stage in the
journey towards Syene, Ethiopia, Napata, and the un
known regions of Africa which popular imagination filled
with barbarous races or savage monsters, and however
1 Thebes was at that time known among the Semites by its popular
name of the city of Amon which the Hebrew writers transcribed as No- Amon
(NaJium iii. 8) or N6 alone (Jer. xlvi. 25 ; Ezelc. xxx. 14, 15, 16), and the
Assyrians by Ni,
THE ADVANCE OF SARGON STAYED 359
far an alien army might penetrate in a southerly direc
tion, it would still meet with the language, customs,
and divinities of Egypt an Egypt whose boundary seemed
to recede as the invader advanced, and which was ever
ready to oppose the enemy with fresh forces whenever
its troops had suffered from his attacks. Sargon, having
reached Raphia, halted on the very threshold of the
unexplored realm whose portals stood ajar ready to admit
him : the same vague disquietude which had checked
the conquering career of the Pharaohs on the borders
of Asia now stayed his advance, and bade him turn back as
he was on the point of entering Africa. He had re
pulsed the threatened invasion, and as a result of his victory
the princes and towns which had invoked the aid of the
foreigner lay at his mercy ; he proceeded, therefore, to
reorganise the provinces of Philistia and Israel, and re
ceived the homage .of Judah and her dependencies. Ahaz,
while all the neighbouring states were in revolt, had not
wavered in his allegiance ; the pacific counsels of Isaiah
had once more prevailed over the influence of the party
which looked for safety in an alliance with Egypt. 1
1 Sargon probably alludes to homage received at this time, when he
styles himself " the subduer of far-off Judah." It is not certain that Ahaz
was still King of Judah ; it was for a long time admitted that Hezekiah was
already king when these events took place, in accordance with 2 Kings xviii.
9, 10, where it is stated that Samaria was destroyed in the sixth year of
Hezekiah. . I consider, in agreement with several historians, that the date
of Sennacherib s invasion of Judah must have remained more firmly fixed in
the minds of the Jewish historians than that of the taking of Samaria, and
as 2 Kings xviii. 13 places this invasion in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah,
which corresponds, as we shall see, to the third year of Sennacherib, or 702
B.C., it seems better to place the accession of Hezekiah about 715, and
300 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
The whole country from the Orontes to the mountains of
Seir and the river of Egypt was again reduced to
obedience, and set itself by peaceful labours to repair
the misfortunes which had befallen it during the previous
quarter of a century. Sargon returned to his capital, but
fate did not yet allow him to renew his projects against
Babylon. Rarely did an insurrection break out in any
part of the country on the accession of a new king at
Nineveh without awaking echoes in the distant provinces
of the empire. The report of a revolt in Chaldsea roused
a slumbering dissatisfaction among the Syrians, and finally
led them into open rebellion : the episodes of the Syrian
campaign, narrated in Armenia or on the slopes of the
Taurus with the thousand embellishments suggested by
the rancour of the narrators, excited the minds of the
inhabitants and soon rendered an outbreak inevitable.
The danger would have been serious if the suppressed
hatred of all had found vent at the same moment, and
if insurrections in five or six different parts of his empire
had to be faced by the sovereign simultaneously ; but
as a rule these local wars broke out without any con
centrated plan, and in localities too remote from each
other to permit of any possible co-operation between
the assailants ; each chief, before attempting to assert
his independence, seemed to wait until the Assyrians
had had ample time to crush the rebel who first took
the field, having done which they could turn the whole
of their forces against the latest foe. Thus laubidi did
prolong the reign of Ahaz till after the campaign of Sargon against Hannon
of Gaza.
ACCESSION OF SARGON 361
not risk a campaign till the fall of Elam and Karduniash
had been already decided on the field of Durilu ; in the
same way, the nations of the North and East refrained
from entering the lists till they had allowed Sargon
time to destroy the league of Hamath and repel the
attack of Pharaoh.
They were secretly incited to rebellion by a power
which played nearly the same part with regard to them
that Egypt had played in Southern Syria. Urartu had
received a serious rebuff in 735 B.C., and the burning of
Dhuspas had put an end to its ascendency, but the victory
had been effected at the cost of so much bloodshed that
Tiglath-pileser was not inclined to risk losing the advantage
already gained by pushing it too far : he withdrew, there
fore, without concluding a treaty, and did not return, being
convinced that no further hostilities would be attempted
till the vanquished enemy had recovered from his defeat.
He was justified in his anticipations, for Sharduris died
about 730, without having again taken up arms, and his
son Eusas I. had left Shalmaneser V. unmolested : l but
the accession of Sargon and the revolts which harassed him
had awakened in Rusas the warlike instincts of his race,
and the moment appeared advantageous for abandoning his
policy of inactivity. The remembrance of the successful
exploits of Menuas and Argistis still lived in the minds of
1 The name of this king is usually written Ursa in the Assyrian inscrip
tions, but the Annals of Sargon give in each case the form Rusa, in
accordance with which Sayce had already identified the Assyrian form Ursa
or Rusa with the form Rusas found on some Urartian monuments. Belck
and Lehmann have discovered several monuments of this Rusas I., son of
Sharduris.
362 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
his people, and more than one of his generals had entered
upon their military careers at a time when, from Arpad and
Carchemish to the country of the Medes, quite a third of
the territory now annexed to Assyria had been subject to
the king of Urartu; Kusas, therefore, doubtless placed
before himself the possibility of reconquering the lost
provinces, and even winning, by a stroke of fortune, more
than had been by a stroke of fortune wrested from his
father. He began by intriguing with such princes as were
weary of the Assyrian rule, among the Mannai, in
Zikartu, 1 among the Tabal, and even among the Khati.
Iranzu, who was at that time reigning over the Mannai,
refused to listen to the suggestions of his neighbour, but
two of his towns, Shuandakhul and Durdukka, deserted him
in 719 B.C., and ranged themselves under Mitatti, chief of
the Zikartu, while about the same time the strongholds of
Sukkia, Bala, and Abitikna, which were on the borders of
Urartu, broke the ties which had long bound them to
Assyria, and concluded a treaty of alliance with Eusas.
Sargon was not deceived as to the meaning of these events,
and at once realised that this movement was not one of
those local agitations which broke out at intervals in one
or other of his provinces. His officers and spies must have
kept him informed of the machinations of Kusas and of the
revolutions which the migrations of the last thirty years
had provoked among the peoples of the Iranian table-land.
A new race had arisen in their rear, that of the Cimmerians
and Scythians, which, issuing in irresistible waves from
1 Zikruti, Zikirtu, Zikartu, may probably be identified with the Sagartians
of Herodotus.
COALITION OF THE NATIONS OF THE NORTH 363
the gorges of the Caucasus, threatened to overwhelm the
whole ancient world of the East. The stream, after a
moment s vacillation, took a westerly direction, and flooded
Asia Minor from one end to the other. Some tribes,
however, which had detached themselves from the main
movement sought an outlet towards the south-east, on to
the rich plains of the Araxes and the country around Lake
Urumiah. The native races, pressed in the rear by these
barbarians, and hemmed in on either side and in front by
"Urartu and Assyria, were forced into closer proximity, and,
conscious of their individual weakness, had begun to form
themselves into three distinct groups, varying considerably
in compactness, the Medes in the south, Misianda in the
north, with Zikartu between them. Zikartu was at that
time the best organised of these nascent states, and its
king, Mitatti, was not deficient either in military talent or
political sagacity. The people over whom he ruled were,
moreover, impregnated with the civilisation of Mesopo
tamia, and by constantly meeting the Assyrians in battle
they had adopted the general principles of their equipment,
organisation, and military tactics. The vigour of his
soldiers and the warlike ardour which inspired them
rendered his armies formidable even to leaders as
experienced, and warriors as hardened, as the officers and
soldiers of Nineveh. Mitatti had strongly garrisoned the
two rebel cities, and trusted that if the Assyrians were
unable to recapture them without delay, other towns would
not be long in following their example ; Iranzu would, no
doubt, be expelled, his place would be taken by a hostile
chief, and the Mannai, joining hands with Urartu on the
364
SARGOX II. OF ASSYRIA
right and Zikartu on the left, would, with these two states,
form a compact coalition, whose combined forces would
menace the northern frontier of the empire from the Zagros
to the Taurus. Sargon, putting all the available Assyrian
forces into the field, hurled them against the rebels, and
this display of power had the desired effect upon the
neighbouring kingdoms : Rusas and Mitatti did not dare to
TAKING OF A CASTLE IX ZIKAKTU
interfere, the two cities were taken by assault, burnt and
razed to the ground, and the inhabitants of the surrounding
districts of Sukkia, Bala, and Abitikna were driven into
exile among the Khati. The next year, however, the war
thus checked on the Iranian table-land broke out in the
north-west, in the mountains of Cilicia. A Tabal chief,
Kiakku of Shinukhta, refused to pay his tribute (718).
Sargon seized him and destroyed his city ; his family and
adherents, 7500 persons in all, were carried away captives
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin.
THE FALL OF PISIRIS 365
to Assyria, and his principality was given to a rival chief,
Matti of Atuna, on a promise from the latter of an increased
amount of tribute. 1 In 717 B.C. more serious dangers openly
declared themselves. The Khati had not forgotten that
they had once been the allies of Urartu, and that their king,
Pisiris, together with Matilu of Agusi, had fought for
Sharduris against Tiglath-pileser III. Pisiris conspired with
Mita, chief of the Mushki, and proclaimed his indepen
dence ; bat vengeance swiftly and surely overtook him.
He succumbed before his accomplice had time to come
to his assistance, and was sent to join Kiakku and his
adherents in prison, while the districts which he had ruled
were incorporated into Assyrian territory, and Carchemish
became the seat of an Assyrian prefect who ranked among
the limmi from whom successive years took their names.
The fall of Pisiris made no impression on his con
temporaries. They had witnessed the collapse of so many
great powers Elam, Urartu, Egypt that the misfortunes
of so insignificant a personage awakened but little interest ;
and yet with him foundered one of the most glorious
wrecks of the ancient world. For more than a century the
Khati had been the dominant power in North-western
Asia, and had successfully withstood the power of Thebes ;
crushed by the Peoples of the Sea, hemmed in and
encroached upon by the rising wave of Aramaean invasion,
they had yet disputed their territory step by step with the
1 The name of Atuna is a variant of the name Tuna, which is found in
the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III., and Tuna recalls the name of the old
city of Tyana, or that of Tynna or Tunna, near Tyana, in the Taurus. Shin-
ukhta, not far from Atuna, must be the capital of a district situated on the
Karmalas or the Saros, on the borders of Cilicia or Cataonia.
366 S ARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
Assyrian generals, and the area over which they spread can
be traced by the monuments and inscriptions scattered over
Cilicia, Lycaonia, Cappadocia, and Northern Syria as far as
the basins of the Orontes and the Litany. So lasting had
proved their influence on all around them, and so fresh was
the memory of their greatness, that it would have seemed
but natural that their vitality should survive this last blow,
and that they should enjoy a prosperous future which
should vie with their past. But events proved that their
national life was dead, and that no recuperative power
remained : as soon as Sargon had overthrown their last
prince, their tribes became merged in the general body of
Ararnseans, and their very name ere long vanished from the
pages of history.
Up to this time Eusas had not directly interfered in
these quarrels between the suzerain and his vassals : he
may have incited the latter to revolt, but he had avoided
compromising himself, and was waiting till the Maunai
had decided to make common cause with him before
showing his hand openly. Ever since the skirmish of the
year 719, Mitatti had actively striven to tempt the Mannai
from their allegiance, but his intrigues had hitherto proved
of no avail against the staunch fidelity first of Irauzu and
then of Aza, who had succeeded the latter about 718. At
the beginning of the year 716 Mitatti was more successful ;
the Mannai, seduced at length by his promises and those
of Eusas, assembled on Mount Uaush, murdered their king,
and leaving his corpse unburied, hastened to place them
selves under the command of Bagadatti, regent of Umildish.
Sargon hurried to the spot, seized Bagadatti, and had him
DEFEAT OF THE MANNAI AND OF ELLIPI 367
flayed alive on Mount Uaush, which had just witnessed the
murder of Aza, and exposed the mass of bleeding flesh
before the gaze of the people to demonstrate the fate
reserved for his enemies. But though he had acted
speedily he was too late, and the fate of their chief, far
from discouraging his subjects, confirmed them in their
rebellion. They had placed upon the throne Ullusunu,
the brother of Aza, and this prince had immediately con
cluded an alliance with Eusas, Mitatti, and the people of
Andia ; his example was soon followed by other Eastern
chiefs, Assurli of Karallu and Itti of Allabria, whereupon,
as the spirit of revolt spread from one to another, most of
the districts lately laid under tribute by Tiglath-pileser
took up arms Niksarna, Bitsagbati, Bitkhirmami, Kilam-
bati, Armangu, and even the parts around Kharkhar, and
Ellipi, with its reigning sovereign Dalta. The general
insurrection dreaded by Sargon, and which Eusas had
for five years been fomenting, had, despite all the efforts
of the Assyrian government, at last broken out, and the
whole frontier was ablaze from the borders of Elam to
those of the Mushku. Sargon turned his attention to
where danger was most urgent ; he made a descent on
the territory of the Mannai, and laid it waste " as a
swarm of locusts might have done; he burnt their
capital, Izirtu, demolished the fortifications of Zibia and
Armaid, and took Ullusunu captive, but, instead of con
demning him to death, he restored to him his liberty
and his crown on condition of his paying a regular tribute.
This act of clemency, in contrast with the pitiless severity
shown at the beginning of the insurrection, instantly
368 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
produced the good effects he expected : the Mannai laid
down their arms and swore allegiance to the conqueror,
and their defection broke up the coalition. Sargon did
not give the revolted provinces time to recover from the
dismay into which his first victories had thrown them,
but marched rapidly to the south, and crushed them
severally ; commencing with Andia, where he took 4200
prisoners with their cattle, he next attacked Zikartu,
whose king, Mitatti, took refuge in the mountains and
thus escaped death at the hands of the executioner.
Assurli of Karalla had a similar fate to Bagadatti, and
was flayed alive. Itti of Allabria, with half of his subjects,
was carried away to Hamath. The towns of Niksama and
Shurgadia were annexed to the province of Parsuash. The
town of Kishisim was reduced to ashes, and its king,
Belsharuzur, together with the treasures of his palace,
was carried away to Nineveh. Kharkhar succumbed after
a short siege, received a new population, and was hence
forward known as Kar-Sharrukin. ; Dalta was restored to
favour, and retained his dominion intact. Never had so
great a danger been so ably or so courageously averted.
It was not without good reason that, after his victory
over the Mannai, Sargon, instead of attacking Eusas, the
most obstinate of his foes, turned against the Medes.
Ellipi, Parsuash, and Kharkhar, comprising half the
countries which had joined in the insurrection, were on
the borders of Elam or had frequent relations with that
state, and it is impossible to conjecture what turn affairs
might have taken had Elam been induced to join their
league, and had the Elamite armies, in conjunction with
SARGON PROMPTLY RE-ESTABLISHES ORDER
369
those of Merodach-baladan, unexpectedly fallen upon the
Assyrian rear by the valleys of the Tigris or the Turnat.
Had the Elamites, however, entertained a desire to mingle
in the fray, the promptness with which Sargon had re-
TAKING OF TIIE CITY OF KISIIISI.M BY THE ASSYRIANS. 1
established order must have given them cause to reflect
and induced them to maintain their neutrality. The year
which had opened so inauspiciously thus ended in victory,
though the situation was still fraught with danger. The
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin. The figures
resembling stags horns, which crown three of the upper towers, are tongues
of flame, as was indicated by the red colouring which still remained on them
when the bas-relief was discovered.
VOL. VII. 2 B
370 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
agitation which had originated in the east and north
east in 716 reached the north-west in 715, and spread as
far as the borders of Southern Syria. Eusas had employed
the winter in secret negotiations with the Mannai, and
had won over one of their principal chiefs, a certain
Dayaukku, whose name seems to be identical with that
which the Greeks transliterated as Deiokes. 1 As soon as
spring had returned he entered the territory of Ullusunu,
and occupied twenty-two strongholds, which were probably
betrayed into his hands by Dayaukku. While this was
taking place Mita of Mushki invaded Cilicia, and the
Arab tribes of the Idumsean desert the Thamudites, the
Ibadites, the Marsimanu, and Khayapa were emboldened
to carry their marauding expeditions into Assyrian territory.
The Assyrian monarch was thus called on to conduct three
distinct wars simultaneously in three different directions ;
he was, moreover, surrounded by wavering subjects whom
terror alone held to their allegiance, and whom the
slightest imprudence or the least reverse might turn into
open foes.
Sargon resolutely faced the enemy at all three points of
attack. As in the previous year, he reserved for himself
the position where danger was most threatening, directing
the operations against the Mannai. He captured one
by one the twenty-two strongholds of Ullusunu which
Rusas had seized, and laying hands on Dayaukku, sent
him and his family into exile to Hamath. This display
of energy determined lanzu of Nairi to receive the
1 The identity of the name Dayaukku with that of Deiokes is admitted
by all historians.
THE DEFEAT OP THE MEDES 3.71
Assyrian monarch courteously within the royal residence
of Khubushkia and to supply him with horses, cattle,
sheep, and goats in token of homage. Proceeding from
thence in an oblique direction, Sargon reached Andia
and took prisoner its king Tilusinas. Having by this
exploit reduced the province of Mannai to order, he
restored the twenty-two towns to Ullusunu, and halting
some days in Izirtn, erected there a statue of himself,
according to his custom, as a visible witness of Assyrian
supremacy, having done which, he retraced his steps to
the south-east. The province of Kharkhar, which had
been reduced to subjection only a few months previously,
was already in open revolt, and the district of Kar-
Sharrukin alone remained faithful to its governor : Sargon
had to reconquer it completely, town by town, imposing
on the four citadels of Kishislu, Kindau, Bit-Bagaia, and
Zaria the new names of Kar-Nabu, Kar-Sin, Kar-Kamruanu,
and Kar-Ishtar, besides increasing the fortifications of
Kar-Sharrukin. The Medes once more acknowledged his
suzerainty, and twenty-two of their chiefs came to tender
the oath of allegiance at his feet ; two or three districts
which remained insubordinate were given up to pillage
as far as Bit-Khamban, and the inhabitants of Kimirra
were sent into captivity. The eastern campaign was
thus brought to a most successful issue, fortune, mean
while, having also favoured the Assyrian arms in the
other menaced quarters. Mita, after pushing forward at
one point as far as the Mediterranean, had been driven
back into the mountains by the prefect of Kui, and the
Bedawin of the south had sustained a serious reverse.
372
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
These latter were mere barbarians, ignorant of the arts
of reading and writing, and hitherto unconquered by any
foreign power : their survivors were removed to Samaria,
where captives from Hamath had already been established,
and where they were soon joined by further exiles from
Babylon. This episode had greater effect than its impor-
THE TOWX OF BIT-BAGAIA BUKXT BY THE ASSYRIANS. 1
tance warranted ; or perhaps the majority of the neighbour
ing states made it a convenient pretext for congratulating
Sargon on his victories over more serious enemies. He
received gifts from Shamshie, the Arabian queen who
had formerly fought against Tiglath-pileser, from Itamar
the Sabasan, and the sheikhs of the desert, from the
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin. The tongues
of flame which issue from the towers still bore traces of red and yellow
colouring when the bas-relief was discovered.
BOCCHORIS 373
kings of the Mediterranean sea-board, and from the
Pharaoh himself. Bocchoris had died after a troublous
reign of seven years. 1 His real character is unknown,
but as he left a deep impression on the memories of his
people, it is natural to conclude that he displayed, at
times, both ability and energy. Many legends in which
the miraculous element prevailed were soon in circulation
concerning him. He was, according to these accounts,
weak in body and insignificant in appearance, but made
up for these defects by mental ability and sound judgment.
He was credited with having been simple in his mode
of life, and was renowned as one of the six great legislators
produced by Egypt. A law concerning debt and the
legal rates of interest, was attributed to him ; he was
also famed for the uprightness of his judgments, which
were regarded as due to divine inspiration. Isis had
bestowed on him a serpent, which, coiling itself round
his head when he sat on the judgment-seat, covered him
with its shadow, and admonished him not to forget for
a moment the inflexible principles of equity and truth.
1 The two dynasties of Tanis and Sais may be for the present recon
stituted as follows :
XXIII. (Tanite) Dynasty. XXIV. (Saite) Dynasty.
I. UAHKARt BuKUNIRt-
NIF BOCCHORIS
I. SAHARURI PATISI-
. . . PETUBASTIS
II. AKHPlRRl SOTPU-.
NIAMOXU OSOR-
KONMARIAMONU OSORKON III.
III. PSAMUTI . . . PSAMMUTHIS
Neither Tafnakhti nor any of the local sovereigns mentioned on the stele of
Pidnkhi were comprised in the official computation ; there is, therefore, no
reason to add them to this list.
374
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
A collection of the decisions he was reputed to have
delivered in famous cases existed in the Graeco-Eoman
period, and one of them is quoted at length: he had
very ingeniously condemned a courtesan to touch the
shadow of a purse as payment for the shadowy favours
she had bestowed in a dream on her lover. An Alexandrian
poet, Pancrates, versified the accounts of this juridical
collection, 1 and the artists of the Imperial epoch drew
KING BOCCHORIS GIVING JUDGMENT BETWEEN TWO WOMEN, RIVAL CLAIMANTS
TO A CHILD. 2
from it motives for mural decoration ; they portrayed the
king pronouncing judgment between two mothers who
disputed possession of an infant, between two beggars
laying claim to the same cloak, and between three men
asserting each of them his right to a wallet full of food. 3
A less favourable tradition represents the king as an
avaricious and irreligious sovereign: he is said one day
1 Pancrates lived in the time of Hadrian, and Athenseus, who has pre
served his memory for us, quotes the first book of his Bocchoreidion.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin.
3 Considerable remains of this decorative cycle have been discovered at
Pompeii and at Rome, in a series of frescoes, in which Lumbroso and E. Lcewy
recognise the features of the legends of Bocchoris ; the dispute between the two
mothers recalls the famous judgment of Solomon (1 Kings iii. 16-28).
THE ACCESSION OF SABACO
375
to have conceived the sacrilegious desire to bring about
a conflict between an ordinary bull and the Mnevis adored
at Heliopolis. The gods, doubtless angered by his crimes,
are recorded to have called into being a lamb with eight
feet, which, suddenly breaking into articulate speech,
predicted that Upper and Lower Egypt would be disgraced
by the rule of a stranger. 1 The monuments of his reign
which have come down to us tell
us nothing of his deeds ; we can
only conjecture that after the
defeat sustained by his generals at
Kaphia, the discords which had
ruined the preceding dynasties
again broke out with renewed vio
lence. Indeed, if he succeeded in
preserving his crown for several
years longer, he owed the fact more
to the feebleness of the Ethiopians
than to his own vigour : no sooner did an enterprising
prince appear at Barkal and demand that he should render
an account of his usurpation, than his power came to an
end. Kashto having died about 716, 3 his son Shabaku,
the Sabaco of the Greeks, inherited the throne, and his
1 This legend, preserved by Manetho and ^lian is also known from the
fragments of a demotic papyrus at Vienna, which contains the prophecy of
the lamb.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.
3 The date of the accession of Sabaco is here fixed at 716-715, because
I follow the version of the lists of Manetho, which gives twelve years as the
reign of that prince ; an inscription from Hammamat mentions his twelfth
year.
SABACO. 2
376 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
daughter Amenertas the priesthood and principality of
Thebes, in right of her mother Shapenuapit. Sabaco was
an able and energetic prince, who could by no means
tolerate the presence of a rival Pharaoh in the provinces
which Pionkhi had conquered. He declared war, and, being
doubtless supported in his undertaking by all the petty
kings and great feudal nobles whose jealousy was aroused
by the unlooked-for prosperity of the Saite monarch, he
defeated Bocchoris and took him prisoner. Tafnakhti had
formerly recognised the Ethiopian supremacy, and Boc
choris, when he succeeded to his father s dominions, had
himself probably sought investiture at the hands of the
King of Napata. Sabaco treated him as a rebel, and
either burnt or flayed him alive (715). 1 The struggle was
hardly over, when the news of Sargon s victories reached
Egypt. It was natural that the new king, not yet securely
seated on his throne, should desire to conciliate the
friendship of a neighbour who was so successful in war,
and that he should seize the first available pretext to
congratulate him. The Assyrian on his part received
these advances with satisfaction and pride : he perceived
in them a guarantee that Egyptian intrigues with Tyre
and Jerusalem would cease, and that he could henceforth
devote himself to his projects against Eusas without being
distracted by the fear of an Ethiopian attack and the
subversion of Syria in his rear.
Sargon took advantage of these circumstances to strike
a final blow at Urartu. He began in the spring of 714 by
1 According to Manetho, he was burnt alive; the tradition which
mentions that he was flayed alive is found in John of Antioch.
OVERTHROW OF URZAXA AND RUSAS 377
collecting among the Mannai the tribute due from Ullusuna,
Dalta, and the Median chiefs ; then pushing forward into
the country of tk e Zikartu, he destroyed three forts and
twenty-four villages, and burnt their capital, Parda.
Mitatti escaped servitude, but it was at the price of his
power : a proscribed fugitive, deserted by his followers,
he took refuge in the woods, and never submitted to his
conqueror ; but he troubled him no further, and disappeared
from the pages of history. Having achieved this result,
Sargon turned towards the north-west, and coming at
length into close conflict with Rusas, did not leave his
enemy till he had crushed him. He drove him into the
gorges of Uaush, slaughtered a large number of his troops,
and swept away the whole of his body-guard a body of
cavalry of two hundred men, all of whom were connected
by blood with the reigning family. Eusas quitted his
chariot, and, like his father Sharduris on the night of the
disaster at Kishtan, leaped upon a mare, and fled, over
whelmed with shame, into the mountains. His towns,
terror-stricken, opened their gates at the first summons
to the victor ; Sargon burnt those which he knew he could
not retain, granted the district of Uaush to his vassal
Ullusunu as a recompense for his loyalty, and then marched
up to rest awhile in Nairi, where he revictualled his troops
at the expense of lanzu of Khubushkia. He had, no doubt,
hoped that Urzana of Muzazir, the last of the friends of
Rusas to hold out against Assyria, would make good use of
the respite thus, to all appearances unintentionally, afforded
him, and would come to terms ; but as the appeal to his
clemency was delayed, Sargon suddenly determined to
378
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
assume the aggressive. Muzazir, entrenched within its
mountain ranges, was accessible only by. one or two
dangerous passes ; Urzana had barricaded these, and
believed himself in a position to defy every effort of the
Assyrians. Sargon, equally convinced of the futility of
a front attack, had recourse to a surprise. Taking with
him his chariots and one thousand picked horsemen, he
TAKING OF A TOWN IN URARTU BY THE ASSYRIANS. 1
left the beaten track, and crossing the four or five mountain
chains the Shiak, the Ardinshi, the Ulayau, and the
Alluria which lay between him and Muzazir, he un
expectedly bore down upon the city. Urzana escaped after
a desperate resistance, but the place was taken by assault
and sacked, the palace destroyed, the temple overthrown,
and the statues of the gods Khaldia and Bagbartu dragged
from their sanctuary. The entire royal family were sent
into slavery, and with them 20,170 of the inhabitants who
had survived the siege, besides 690 mules, 920 oxen,
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the drawing by Botta.
THE CLOSE OF THE URARTIAN EMPIRE
379
100,225 sheep, and incalculable spoils in gold, silver,
bronze, iron, and precious stones and stuffs, the furniture
of Urzana, and even his seal, being deposited in the
treasury at Nineveh. The disaster at Muzazir was the
final blow to Urartu; it is impossible to say what took
place where Eusas himself was, and whether the feudatories
refused him any further allegiance, but in a short time he
found himself almost forsaken, without friends, troops, or
a place of refuge, and ....^^^^^^^M
reduced to choose be
tween death or the degra
dation of appealing to
the mercy of the con
queror. He stabbed him
self rather than yield ;
and Sargon, only too
thankful to be rid of such
a dangerous adversary, stopped the pursuit. Argistis II.
succeeded to what was left of his father s kingdom, 2 and,
being anxious above all things to obtain peace for his sub
jects, suspended hostilities, without however disarming his
troops. As was the case under Tiglath-pileser III., Urartu
neither submitted to Assyria, nor was there any kind of
treaty between the belligerents to prescribe the conditions
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an impression of the original seal
which is preserved at the Hague.
2 No text states positively that Argistis II. immediately succeeded his
father ; but he is found mentioned as King of Urartu from 708 onwards,
and hence it has been concluded, not without some reason, that such was the
fact. The Vannic inscriptions have not as yet given us this sovereign s
name.
THE SEAL OF TJRZAXA, KING OF MUZAZIR. 1
380 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
of this temporary truce. Both sides maintained their
positions on their respective territories : Sargon kept the
frontier towns acquired by him in previous years, and which
he had annexed to the border provinces, retaining also
his suzerainty over Muzazlr, the Mannai, and the Median
states implicated in the struggle ; Argistis, on his side,
strengthened himself in the regions around the sources
of the Euphrates and Lake Van in Bialnas, in Etius, and
in the plains of the Araxes. The material injuries which
he had received, however considerable they may appear,
were not irreparable, and, as a fact, the country quickly
recovered from them, but the people s confidence in their
prince and his chiefs was destroyed. The defeat of
Sharduris, following as it did on a period of advantageous
victories, may have seemed to Argistis one of those
unimportant occurrences which constantly take place in
the career of the strongest nations ; the disaster of Busas
proved to him that, in attempting to wipe out his first
repulse, he had only made matters worse, and the conviction
was borne in upon his princes that they were not in a
position to contest the possession of Western Asia with the
Assyrians. They therefore renounced, more from instinct
than as the result of deliberation, the project of enlarging
their borders to the south, and if they subsequently re
appeared on the Mesopotamian plains, it was in search of
booty, and not to acquire territory. Any attempt to stop
their incursions, or to disturb them in their mountain
fastnesses, found them prepared to hold their own with
the same obstinacy as of old, and they were quite able to
safeguard their independence against an intruder. Besides
DEFEAT OF AMITASHSHI
381
this, the Cimmerians and the Scythians were already
pressing on their frontier, and were constantly harassing
them. This fresh danger absorbed their entire attention,
and from this time forward they ceased to play a part in
general history ; the century which had seen the rise and
growth of their
power was also a
witness of their
downfall under the
attacks of Assyria.
During the last
months of 714, the
tribeswhichhad for
merly constituted
the kingdom of
Karalla mutinied
against the tyranny
of their governor,
and invited Ami-
tashshi, the brother of their ancient lord Assurli, to rule
over them. Sargon attacked them in the spring of 713,
dispersed their troops, held them to ransom, and after
having once more exacted homage from Bit-Dayaukku, 2
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile by Flandin. It seems
that this town was called Amkaru, and its name appears, as far as I know,
in none of the accounts which we possess of the campaigns. The town was
apparently situated in Karalla or in Median territory.
2 The Dayaukku who gave his name to this province was at first con
founded with the personage who was entangled in the affairs of Ullusunu,
and was then banished by Sargon to Hamath. A good number of historians
now admit that they were different persons. Bit-Dayaukku is evidently the
district of Ecbatana.
THE ASSYKIANS TAKING A MEDIAN
382 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
Ellipi, and Allabria, made a raid extending as far as the
confines of the Iranian desert, the barren steppes of
Eastern Arabia, 1 and the district of Nagira belonging to
the "powerful Manda. 2 While he was thus preparing
the way for peace in his Median domains, one of his
generals crossed the Euphrates to chastise the Tabal for
their ill deeds. The latter had figured, about the year
740 B.C., among the peoples who had bowed before the
supremacy of Urartu, and their chief, Uassarmi, had been
the ally or vassal of Sharduris. Contemptuously spared
at the taking of Arpad, he had not been able to resign
himself to the Assyrian yoke, and had, in an ill-timed
moment, thrown it off in 731 ; he had, however, been
overcome and forced to surrender, and Tiglath-pileser had
put in his place a man of obscure birth, named Khulli,
whose fidelity had remained unshaken throughout the
reign of Shalmaneser V. and the first years of Sargon.
Khulli s son, Ambaridis, the husband of a Ninevite princess,
who had brought him as dowry a considerable part of
Cilicia, had been unable to resist the flattering offers of
Eusas ; he had broken the ties which attached him to the
new Assyrian dynasty, but had been left unmolested so
long as Urartu and Muzazir remained unshaken, since
1 The Eastern Arabs mentioned here were nomadic, and inhabited the
confines of the Great Desert to the south-east of Media, or the steppes of
Northern Iran. They are those mentioned in a passage of Appian, together
with Parthians, Bactrians, and Tapyraeans, as having submitted to Seleucus.
2 The "powerful" Manda, encamped in the mountain and desert, and
who were named after the Eastern Arabs, must be the peoples situated
between the Caspian and the steppes of the Iranian plateau, and a branch of
the Scythians who are soon to appear in Asiatic history.
AN ASSYRIAN PROVINCE IN CAPPADOCIA 383
his position at the western extremity of the empire
prevented him from influencing in the smallest degree
the issue of the struggle, and it was well known that
when the fall of Rusas took place Ambaridis would be
speedily brought to account. He was, in fact, seized,
banished to the banks of the Tigris, and his hereditary
fief of Blt-Burutash annexed to Cilicia, under the rule
of an Assyrian. The following year was signalised by a
similar execution at which Sargon himself deigned to
preside in person. Tarkhunazi, the King of Miliddu, not
only had taken advantage of the troubles consequent on
the Armenian war to rebel against his master, but had
attacked Gunzinanu, who held, and had ruthlessly pillaged,
the neighbouring district of Kammanu. 1 Sargon overcame
him in the open field, took from him his city of Miliddu,
and stormed the town of Tulgarimme in which he had
taken refuge. 2 Here again the native kingdom dis
appeared, and was replaced by an Assyrian administration.
Kammanu, wedged in between Urartu and Mushki,
separated these two countries, sometimes rivals to each
other, but always enemies to Nineveh. Its maintenance
as an independent kingdom prevented them from com
bining their efforts, and obtaining that unity of action
which alone could ensure for them, if not a definite
triumph, at least preservation from complete extinction
1 Kammanu is probably not the Kammanene of the Greek geographers,
which is too far north relatively to Melitene, but is probably Comana of
Cappadocia and its district.
2 Tulgarimme has been connected with the Togarmah of the Bible (Gen.
x. 3) by Halevy and Delitzsch, and their views on this subject have been
adopted by most historians.
384 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
and an opportunity of maintaining their liberty ; the
importance of the position, however, rendered it particularly
perilous to hold, and the Assyrians succeeded in so doing
only by strongly fortifying it. Walls were built round
ten cities, five on the Urartian frontier, three on that
of Mushki, and two on the north, and the country which
they protected was made into a new province, that of
Tulgarimmfc, the district of Miliddu being confided to
the care of Mutallu, Prince of Kurnraukh (710). An incident
which took place in the following year furnished a pretext
for completing the organisation and military defence of
this western border province. Gurgum had been for thirty
years or more in the possession of Tarkhulara ; this prince,
after having served Sharduris, had transferred his homage
to Tiglath-pileser, and he had thenceforward professed an
unwavering loyalty to the Assyrian sovereigns. This accom
modating personage was assassinated by his son Mutallu ;
and Sargon, fearing a revolt, hastened, at the head of a
detachment of picked troops, to avenge him. The murderer
threw down his arms almost without having struck a blow,
and Gurgum was thenceforward placed under the direct
rule of Nineveh. The affair had not been brought to a
close before an outbreak took place in Southern Syria,
which might have entailed very serious consequences had
it not been promptly dealt with. Egypt, united from
end to end under the sceptre of Sabaco, jealously kept
watch over the political complications in Asia, and though
perhaps she was not sure enough of her own strength to
interfere openly before the death of Eusas, she had renewed
negotiations with the petty kingdoms of the Hebrews and
THE REVOLT AND THE FALL OF ASEDOD 385
Philistines. Ashdod had for some time past showed signs
of discontent, and it had been found necessary to replace
their king, Azuri, who had refused to pay tribute, by his
brother Akhimiti; shortly after this, however, the people
had risen in rebellion: they had massacred Akhimiti,
whom they accused of being a mere thrall of Assyria,
and had placed on the throne Yamani, a soldier of fortune,
probably an adventurer of Hellenic extraction. 1 The other
Philistine cities had immediately taken up arms; Edom
and Moab were influenced by the general movement, and
Isaiah was striving to avert any imprudent step on the
part of Judah. Sargon despatched the TartaD, 2 and the
rapidity with which that officer carried out the campaign
prevented the movement from spreading beyond Philistia.
He devastated Ashdod, and its vassal, Gath, carried off
their gods and their inhabitants, and peopled the cities
afresh with prisoners from Asia Minor, Urartu, and Media.
Yamani attempted to escape into Egypt, but the chief
of Milukhkha intercepted him on his way, and handed
him over in chains to the conqueror. 3 The latter took
This prince s name, usually written Yamani, is also written Yatnani in
the Annals, and this variation, which is found again in the name of the
island of Cyprus and the Cypriotes, gives us grounds for believing that the
Assyrian scribe took the race-name of the prince for a proper name : the
new king of Ashdod would have been a Yamani, a Greek of Cyprus.
The Assyrian narratives, as usual, give the honour of conducting the
campaign to the king. Isaiah (xx. 1) distinctly says that Sargon sent the
Tartan to quell the revolt of Ashdod.
The Annalt state that Yamani was made prisoner and taken to Assyria.
The Pastes, more accurate on this point, state that he escaped to Muzri, and
that he was given up by the King of Milukhkha. The Muzri mentioned in
this passage very probably here means Egypt.
VOL. VII. 2 C
386 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
care not to call either Moab, Edoni, or Judali to account
for the part they had taken in the movement, perhaps
because they were not mentioned in his instructions, or
because he preferred not to furnish them, by an untimely
interference, with a pretext for calling in the help of
Egypt. The year was doubtless too far advanced to allow
him to dream of marching against Pharaoh, and moreover
that would have been one of those important steps which
the king alone had the right to take. There was, however,
no doubt that the encounter between the two empires
was imminent, and Isaiah ventured to predict the precise
date of its occurrence. He walked stripped and barefoot
through the streets of Jerusalem a strange procedure
which he explained by the words which Jahveh had put
into his lips : " Like as My servant Isaiah hath walked
naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder
upon Egypt and upon Kush (Ethiopia) ; so shall the King
of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles
of Kush, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with
buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they
shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Kush their
expectation, and of Egypt their glory. And the in
habitants of this coastland shall say in that day, Behold,
such is our expectation, whither we fled for help to be
delivered from the King of Assyria: and we, how shall
we escape ?
The fulfilment of this prophecy did not take place as
quickly as the prophet perhaps desired. Egypt appeared
too strong to be openly attacked by a mere section of the
1 Isa. xx.
WAR AGAINST MERODACH-BALADA?; 387
battalions at the disposal of Assyria, and besides, it may
have been deemed imprudent to involve the army to any
serious extent on so distant a field as Africa, when Babylon
was ready and waiting to fall upon the very heart of
Assyria at the first news of a real or supposed reverse.
Circumstances seemed, moreover, to favour a war against
Merodach-baladan. This sovereign, who had been received
with acclamation by the Babylonians, had already lost the
popularity he had enjoyed at his accession. The fickle
character of the people, which made them nearly always
welcome a fresh master with enthusiasm, soon led them
from love and obedience to hatred, and finally to revolt.
Merodach-baladan trusted to the Kalda to help him to
maintain his position, and their rude barbarity, even if it
protected him against the fickleness of his more civilised
subjects, increased the discontent at Kutha, Sippar, and
Borsippa. He removed the statues of the gods from these
towns, imprisoned the most turbulent citizens, confiscated
their goods, and distributed them among his own followers ;
the other cities took no part in the movement, but Sargon
must have expected to find in them, if not effective support,
at least sympathies which would facilitate his work of
conquest. It is true that Elarn, whose friendship for the
Aramaean was still undirninished, remained to be reckoned
with, but Elam had lost much of its prestige in the last few
years. The aged Khumban-igash had died in 71 7, 1 and his
The date of the death of Khumban-igash is indirectly given in the
passage of the Babylonian Chronicle of Pinches, where it is said that in
the first year of Ashshur-nadin-shumu, King of Babylon, Ishtar-khundu
(= Shutruk-nakhunta) was dethroned by his brother, Khallushu, after
388 SABGON II. OF ASSYRIA
successor, Shutruk-naklmnta, had not apparently inherited
all the energy of his father, 1 and it is possible that troubles
had arisen among the vassals of his own kingdom which
prevented him from interfering on behalf of his ally.
Sargon took account of all these circumstances in arranging
his plan of campaign. He divided his army into two forces,
one of which, under his own command, was to be directed
against Merodach-baladan, while the other was to attack
the insurgent Aramasans on the left bank of the Tigris, and
was to be manoeuvred so as to drive Shutruk-naklmnta
back on the marshes of the Uknu. 2 The eastern force was
the first to be set in movement, and it pushed forward into
the territory of the Gambulu. These latter had con
centrated themselves round Dur-Atkharas, one of their
citadels ; 3 they had increased the height of the walls, and
having reigned over Elam eighteen years : these events actually took place,
as we shall see below, about the year 699 before our era.
1 Shutruk-nakhunta is the Susian form of the name ; the Assyrian texts
distort it into Shutur-nankhundi, and the Bali/Ionian Chronicle of Pinclics,
into Ishtar-khundu, owing to a faint resemblance in the sound of the name
of the goddess Ishtar with the form Shutur, Sthur, itself derived from Shutruk,
with which the name began.
2 The earlier historians of Assyria, misled in the first place by the form
in which the scribes have handed down the account in the Annals and the
Pastes, assumed the existence of a single army, led by Sargon himself, and
which would have marched on all the above-mentioned places of the country,
one by one. Tiele was the first to recognise that Sargon must have left part
of his forces to the command of one of his lieutenants, and Winckler, en
larging on this idea, showed that there were then two armies, engaged at
different seats of war, but manoeuvring as far as possible by mutual arrange
merit.
3 The site of Dur-Atkharas is unknown. Billerbeck places it hypothet
cally on the stream of Mendeli, and his conjecture is in itself very plausible
I should incline, however, to place it more to the south, on account of the
THE DEFEAT OF SHUTRUK-NAKHUNTA II. 389
filled the ditches with water brought from the Slmrappu by
means of a canal, and having received a reinforcement of
COO horsemen and 4000 foot soldiers, they had drawn them
up in front of the ramparts. A single morning sufficed to
disperse them, and the Assyrians, entering the city with
the fugitives, took possession of it on the same day. They
made 10,490 prisoners, and seized horses, mules, asses,
camels, and both sheep and oxen in large numbers. Eight
of the chiefs of the neighbourhood, who ruled over the flat
country between the Shurappu and the Uknu, begged for
mercy as soon as they learned the result of the engagement.
The name of Dur-Atkharas was changed to that of Dur-
Nebo, the territory of the Gambulu was converted into a
province, and its organisation having been completed, the
army continued its march, sweeping before it the Rua, the
Khindaru, the Puqudu, in short, all the tribes occupying
the district of Yatbur. The chiefs of these provinces
sought refuge in the morasses of the lower Kerkha, but
finding themselves surrounded and short of provisions, they
were forced by famine to yield to the enemy, and came to
terms with the Assyrians, who imposed a tribute on them
and included them within the new province of Gambulu.
The goal of this expedition was thus attained, and Elam
separated from Karduniash, but the issue of the war
passage in which it is said that the Kaldfi, to complete the defences of the
town, brought a canal from the Shurappu and fortified its banks. The
Shurappu, according to Delitzsch, would be the Shatt Umm-el-Jemal ;
according to Delattre, the Kerkha ; the account of the campaign under con
sideration would lead me to recognise in it a watercourse like the Tib, which
runs into the Tigris near Amara, in which case the ruins of Kherib would
perhaps correspond with the site of Dur-Atkharas.
390 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
remained undecided as long as Skutruk-nakhnnta held the
cities at the edge of the plain, from which he could emerge
at will into the heart of the Assyrian position. - The
conqueror therefore turned in that direction, rapidly took
from him the citadels of Shanmna and Bahduri, then those
of Lakhirimmu and Pillutu, and pitched his camp on the
bank of the Naditi, from whence he despatched marauding
bands to pillage the country. Dismay spread throughout
the district of Eashi ; the inhabitants, abandoning their
cities Tll-Khumba, Durmishamash, Bubi, and Khamanu
migrated as far as Bit-Inibi ; Shutruk-nakhunta, overcome
with fear, took refuge, so it was said, in the distant
mountains to preserve his life. 1 Sargon, meanwhile, had
crossed the Euphrates with the other force, and had
marched straight upon Bit-Dakkuri ; having there noticed
that the fortress of Dur-Ladinu was in ruins, he rebuilt it,
1 None of these places can be identified with certainty. So far as I can
follow the account of this campaign on the map, it seems that the attacks
upon Shutruk-nakhunta took place on the plain arid in the mountains between
the Ab-i-Gengir and the Tib, so that the river Naditi would be the Aftah or
one of its tributaries. If this were so, Lakhirimmu and Pillutu would be
situated somewhere near the Jughai ben Euan and the Tepe Ghulamen of
de Morgan s map of Elam, Shamuna near Zirzir-tepi, Babduri near Hosseini-
yeh. But I wish it to be understood that I do not consider these com
parisons as more than simple conjectures. Bit-Imbi was certainly out of the
reach of the Assyrians, since it was used as a place of refuge by the inhabi
tants of Rashi ; at the same time it must have been close to Rashi, since the
people of this country fled thither. The site of Ghilan which de Morgan has
adopted on his map seems to me to be too far north to comply with these
conditions, and that of Tapa, approved by Billerbeck, too southerly. If, as
I believe, Rashi corresponds to the regions of Pushti-kuh which lie on both
sides of the upper waters of the Mendeli stream, we ought to look for Bit-
Imbi somewhere near the Desht-i-Ghoaur and the Zenjan, near a point where
communication with the banks of the Ab-i-Kirind would be easy.
THE CONQUEST OF BABYLON 391
and, firmly installed within the heart of the country, he
patiently waited until the eastern force had accomplished
its mission. Like his adversary, Merodach-baladan, he had
no desire to be drawn into an engagement until he knew
what chance there was of the latter being reinforced by the
King of Elam. At the opening of hostilities Merodach-
baladan claimed the help of the Elamite king, and lavished
on him magnificent presents a couch, a throne, a portable
chair, a cup for the royal offerings, and his own pectoral
chain ; these all reached their destination in good con
dition, and were graciously accepted. But before long the
Elamite prince, threatened in his own domain, forgot
everything except his own personal safety, and declared
himself unable to render Merodach-baladan any assistance.
The latter, on receiving this news, threw himself with his
face in the dust, rent his clothes, and broke out into loud
weeping ; after which, conscious that his strength would
not permit of his meeting the enemy in the open field, he
withdrew his men from the other side of the Tigris, escaped
secretly by night, and retired with his troops to the fortress
of Ikbibel. The inhabitants of Babylon and Borsippa did
not allow themselves to be disconcerted ; they brought the
arks of Bel, Zarpanit, Nebo, and Tashmit out of their
sanctuaries, and came forth with chanting and musical
instruments to salute Sargon at Dur-Ladinu. He entered
the city in their company, and after he had celebrated the
customary sacrifices, the people enthroned him in
Merodach-baladan s palace. Tribute was offered to him,
but lie refused to accept any part of it for his personal use,
and applied it to a work of public utility the repairing of
392 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
the ancient canal of Borsippa, which had become nearly
filled up. This done, he detached a body of troops to occupy
Sippara, and returned to Assyria, there to take up his
winter quarters.
Once again, therefore, the ancient metropolis of the
Euphrates was ruled by an Assyrian, who united in one
protrocol the titles of the sovereigns of Assur and Kar-
duniash. Babylon possessed for the kings of Nineveh
the same kind of attraction as at a later date drew
the German Caisars to Rome. Scarcely had the Assyrian
monarchs been crowned within their own domains, than
they turned their eyes towards Babylon, and their
ambition knew no rest till the day came for them to
present themselves in pomp within the temple of its god
and implore his solemn consecration. When at length
they had received it, they scrupulously secured its renewal
on every occasion which the law prescribed, and their
chroniclers recorded among the important events of the
year, the ceremony in which they " took the hand of
Bel." Sargon therefore returned, in the month Nisan
of the year 709, to preside over the procession of the
god, and he devoutly accomplished the rites which con
stituted him the legitimate successor of the semi-fabulous
heroes of the old empire, foremost among whom was his
namesake Shargani of Agade. He offered sacrifices to
Bel, Nebo, and to the divinities of Sumir and Akkad,
and he did not return to the camp until he had fulfilled
all the duties incumbent on his new dignity. He was in
volved that year in two important wars at opposite
points of his empire. One was at the north-western
SARGON ENCOUNTERS MERODACH-BALADAN 393
extremity, against the Mushki and their king Mita, who,
after having supported Eusas, was now intriguing with
Argistis ; the other in the south-east, against the Kalda,
and probably also against Elam. He entrusted the
conduct of the former to the governor of Kui, but
reserved to himself the final reckoning with Merodach-
baladan. The Babylonian king had made good use of
the respite given him during the winter months. Too
prudent to meet his enemy in the open plain, he had
transformed his hereditary principality into a formidable
citadel. During the preceding campaign he had devas
tated the whole of the country lying between the
marshes and the territory occupied by the Assyrians,
and had withdrawn the inhabitants. Most of the
towns Ikbibel, Urn, Uruk, Kishik, and Nimid-laguda
were also deserted, and no garrisons were left in them.
He had added to the fortifications of Dur-Yakio, and
enlarged the rnoat till it was two hundred cubits wide
and eighteen deep, so as to reach the level of infil
tration ; he then turned into it the waters of the Euphrates,
so that the town appeared to be floating on a lake,
without either bridges or quays by means of which the
besiegers might have brought their machines within range
and their troops been able to approach for an assault.
Merodach-baladan had been careful not to shut himself
within the town, but had taken up a position in the
marshes, and there awaited the arrival of the Assyrians.
Sargon, having left Babylon in the month of lyyar,
encountered him within sight of Dur-Yakin. The Ara
maean infantry were crushed by repeated charges from
394 SARGO^ II. OF ASSYRIA
the Niuevite chariotry and cavalry, who pursued the
fugitives to the outer side of the moat, and seized the
camp with all its baggage and the royal train, includ
ing the king s tent, a canopy of solid silver which
protected the throne, his sceptre, weapons, and stores of
all kinds. The peasants, to the number of 90,580, crowded
within the lines, also fell into their hands, together with
their flocks and herds 2500 horses, 610 mules, and
854 camels, as well as sheep, oxen, and asses ; the re
mainder of the fugitives rushed within the outworks for
refuge " like a pack of wild boars," and finally were
driven into the interior of the place, or scattered among
the beds of reeds along the coast. S argon cut down
the groves of palm trees which adorned the suburbs,
and piled up their trunks in the moat, thus quickly
forming a causeway right up to the walls. Merodach-
baladan had been wounded in the arm during the
engagement, but, nevertheless, fought stubbornly in defence
of his city ; when he saw that its fall was inevitable,
he fled to the other side of the gulf, and took refuge
among the mud flats of the Lower Ulai. Sargon set
fire to Dur-Yakin, levelled its towers and walls with the
ground, and demolished its houses, temples, and palaces.
It had been a sort of penal settlement, to which the
Kalda, rulers used to consign those of their subjects
belonging to the old aboriginal race, who had rendered
themselves obnoxious by their wealth or independence
of character ; the number of these prisoners was consider
able. Babylon, Borsippa, Nipur, and Sippar, not to speak
of Uru, Uruk, Eridu, Larsam, and Kishik, having all
SUBMISSION OF THE MUSHKI :V.r>
of them furnished their share. Sargon released them
all, and restored their gods to the temples ; he expelled
the nomads from the estates which, contrary to all
justice, had been distributed among them in preceding
years, and reinstated the former owners. Karduniash,
which had been oppressed for twelve long years by a
semi-barbarian despot, now breathed again, and hailed
Sargon as its deliverer, while he on his part was actively
engaged in organising his conquest. The voluntary sub
mission of Upiri, King of Dilmun, who lived isolated in
the open sea, " as though in a bird s nest," secured to
Sargon possession of the watercourses which flowed
beyond the Chaldsean lake into the Persian Gulf: no
sooner had he obtained it than he quitted the neigh
bourhood of Dur-Yakin, crossed the Tigris, and reinforced
the garrisons which lined his Elamite frontier on this
side. He had just finished building a strongly fortified
citadel on the site of Sagbat, 1 when ambassadors arrived
from Mita. The governor of Kni had at length triumphed
over the obstinacy of the Mushki, and after driving them
from village to village, had compelled them to sue for terms :
the tidings of the victories over the Kalda had doubtless
hastened their decision, but they were still so powerful
that it was thought wiser not to impose too rigorous
conditions upon them. Mita agreed to pay tribute, and
surrendered one or two districts, which were turned into
1 This Sagbat, which must not be confused with the district of Bit-
Sagbati mentioned in the reign of Tiglath-pileser III., seems to correspond
with a post to the south of Durilu, perhaps the ruins of Baksayeh, on the
Tchen<mla.
396
SARGOX II. OF ASSYRIA
an Aramaean settlement : the inhabitants were transferred
to Blfc-Yakin, where they had to make the best they
could of lands that had been devastated by war. At this
juncture the Greeks of Cyprus flattered the pride of the
Assyrians in a most unexpected way: after the manner
of their race they scoured the seas, and
their fleets persistently devastated the
coasts of Syria and Cilicia. Seven of
their kings were so far alarmed by the
report of Sargon s achievements as to
dread punishment for their misdeeds.
They therefore sent him presents, and,
for the moment, abandoned their pirati
cal expeditions in Phoenician waters.
The homage of these inveterate robbers
raised Sargon in his own eyes and in
those of his subjects. Some years later,
about 708 B.C., he presented them with
a stele of black marble, on which he
had engraved his own portrait, together
with a long inscription setting forth his
most glorious exploits. They set it up
at Kition (Citium), where it has been
preserved amongst the ruins, a priceless witness to the
greatness of Assyria.
While war thus raged around him, Sargon still found
time for works of a peaceful character. He set himself
to remodel and complete the system of irrigation in the
Assyrian plain ; he repaired the dykes, and cleaned out
Drawn by Faucher-Gudiii, from the plaster cast in the Louvre.
STELE AT LARNAKA. 1
BUILDINGS AT DUR -SHARRUKIN 397
and made good the beds of the canals which had been
neglected during the troublous times of the last generation.
He erected buildings at Calah * and at Nineveh, but in
these cities everything seemed to recall too vividly the
memory of the sovereigns who had gone before him : he
wished for a capital which should belong to himself alone,
where he would not be reminded of a past in which he had
no part. After meditating day and night, his choice fell
upon the village of Maganubba, a little to the north-east
of Nineveh, in a wide plain which extends from the banks
of the Khuzur to the hills of Muzri, and by a single decree
he expropriated all its inhabitants. He then built on the
land which he had purchased from them a city of unrivalled
magnificence, which he called by his own name, Dur-
Sharrukin. 2 The ground plan of it is of rectangular shape,
the sides being about 1900 yards long by 1800 yards wide,
each corner exactly facing one of the four points of the
compass. Its walls rest on a limestone sub-structure some
three feet six inches high, and rise fifty-seven feet above
the ground ; they are strengthened, every thirty yards or
At Calah, he lived in an old palace of Assur-nazir-pal restored and
adapted for his use, as shown by the inscription published by Layard.
1 In most of the texts the village of Maganubba is not named ; it is
mentioned in the Cylinder Inscription, and this document is the only one
which furnishes details of the expropriation, etc. The modern name of the
place is Khorsabad, the city of Khosroes, but the name of its founder was still
associated with its ruins, in the time of Yakut, who mentions him under the
name of Sarghun. It was first explored in 1843 by Botta, then by Place and
Oppert. The antiquities collected there by Botta and Place constitute the
bulk of the Assyrian Museum in the Louvre ; unfortunately, a part of the
objects collected by Place went to the bottom of the Tigris with the lighter
which was carrying them.
398
SARGOX II. OP ASSYRIA
so, by battlemented towers which project thirteen feet from
the face of the wall and stand sixteen feet higher than the
ramparts. 1 Access was gained to the interior by eight
gates, two on each side of the square, each of them marked
PLAN OF THE KOYAL CITY OF DUK-SHARKUKIX. 2
by two towers separated from one another by the width of
the bay. Every gate had its patron, chosen from among
the gods of the city ; there was the gate of Shamash, the
Place reckoned the height of the wall at 75 feet, a measurement
adopted by Perrot and Chipiez ; Dieulafoy has shown that the height of the
wall must be reduced to 47 feet, and that of the towers about 65 feet.
: Reduction by Faucher-Gudin, from the plan published in Place.
THE GATES AND WALLS OF DUR-SHARRUKIN 399
gate of Eammaii, those of Bel and Beltis, of Ann, of Ishtar,
of Ea, and of the Lady of the Gods. Each of them was
protected externally by a migdol, or small castle, built in
the Syrian style, and flanked at each corner by a low tower
thirteen yards in width ; five allowed of the passage of
beasts as well as men. It was through these that the
peasants came in every morning, driving their cattle before
them, or jolting along in waggons laden with fruit and
vegetables. After passing the outposts, they crossed a
paved courtyard, then made their way between the two
towers through a vaulted passage over fifty yards long,
intersected at almost equal intervals by two transverse
galleries. The other three gates had a special arrangement
of their own; a flight of twelve steps built out in front
of the courtyard rendered them inaccessible to animals or
vehicles. At the entrance to the passage towered two
colossal bulls with human heads, standing like sentinels-
their faces and foreparts turned outward, their hind-quarters
ranged along the inner walls as though gazing before
them into space in company with two winged genii. The
arch supported by their mitred heads was ornamented by
a course of enamelled bricks, on which other genii, facing
one another in pairs, offered pine-cones across a circular
ornament of many colours. These were the mystic
guardians of the city, who shielded it not only from the
attacks of men, but also from invasions of evil spirits and
pernicious diseases. The rays of the sun made the fore
court warm in winter, while it was always cool under the
archway in summer ; the gates served as resorts for pleasure
or business, where old men and idlers congregated to discuss
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
their affairs and settle the destinies of the State, merchants
bargained and disposed of their goods, and the judge and
notables of the neighbouring quarter held their courts.
It was here that the king generally exposed to view the
chieftains and kings whom he had taken captive ; here
they lay, chained like dogs in cages, dependent on the
pity of their guards or of passers-by for such miserable fare
PAKT OF THE ENAMELLED COUKSE OF A GATE. 1
as might be flung to them, and, the first feeling of curiosity
once passed, no longer provoking even the jeers of the
crowd, until a day came when their victor took it into his
head to remove them from their ignominious position, and
either restored them to their thrones or sent them to the
executioner. 2 The town itself, being built from plans
drawn up by one mind, must have presented few of the
irregularities of outline characteristic of ancient cities.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a drawing published in Place.
To mention but a single instance, it was in this way that Assur-bani-
pal treated the Arab kings captured by him.
THE POPULATION OF THE CITY 401
The streets leading from the gates were of uniform breadth
throughout, from one side of the enclosure to the other.
They were paved, had no sideways or footpaths, and crossed
one another at right angles. The houses on either side
of them seem, for the most part, to have consisted of a
single story. They were built of bricks, either baked or
unbaked, the outer surfaces of which were covered with
white or tinted rough-casting. The high and narrow doors
were nearly always hidden away in a corner of the front ;
the bare monotony of the walls was only relieved here and
there at long intervals by tiny windows, but often instead
of a flat roof the building was surmounted by a conical
dome or by semi-cupolas, the concave sides of which were
turned inwards. The inhabitants varied greatly in race
and language : S argon had filled his city with prisoners
collected from all the four quarters of his empire, from
Elam, Chaldsea, and Media, from Urartu and Tabal, Syria
and Palestine, and in order to keep these incongruous
elements in check he added a number of Assyrians, of the
mercantile, official, or priestly classes. He could overlook
the whole city from the palace which he had built on both
sides the north-eastern wall of the town, half within and
half without the ramparts. Like all palaces built on the
Euphratean model, this royal castle stood on an artificial
eminence of bricks formed of two rectangles joined together
in the shape of the letter T. The only entrance to it was
on the city side, foot-passengers being admitted by a double
flight of steps built out in front of the ramparts, horsemen
and chariots by means of an inclined plane which rose in a
gentle gradient along the right flank of the masonry work,
VOL. VII. 2 D
402
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
and terminated on its eastern front. Two main gates
corresponded to these two means of approach ; the one
on the north-east led straight to the royal apartments, the
other faced the city and opened on to the double staircase.
It was readily distinguishable from a distance by its two
BIKD S EYE VIEW OF SAEGON S PALACE AT DUB-SHABBUKiH. 1
fiagstaffs bearing the royal standard, and its two towers,
at the base of which were winged bulls and colossal figures
of Gilgames crushing the lion. Two bulls of still more
monstrous size stood sentry on either side of the gate, the
arch was outlined by a course of enamelled bricks, while
higher up, immediately beneath the battlements, was an
enamelled mosaic showing the king in all his glory.. This
J Drawn by Boudier, from the restoration by Thomas in PJace.
ROYAL PALACE AT DUR-SHARRUKIN
403
triumphal arch was reserved for his special use, the
common people being admitted by two side doors of
smaller size less richly decorated.
Sargon resided at Calah, where he had taken up his
quarters in the ^ f ormer palace of Assur-
nazir-pal, while
his new city was still
ONE OF THE GATES OF THE PALACE AT DUR-SHAKKUKIST. 1
in the hands of the builders. Every moment that he could
spare from his military and administrative labours was
devoted to hastening on the progress of the work, and when
ever he gained a victory or pillaged a district, he invariably
set aside a considerable part of the booty in order to meet
the outlay which the building involved. Thus we find that
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in
Place.
401
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
on returning from his tenth campaign he brought with him
an immense convoy laden with timber, stone, and precious
metals which he had collected in the neighbourhood of
Mount Taurus or among the mountains of Assyria, includ
ing coloured marbles, lapis-lazuli, rock crystal, pine, cedar,
and cypress-wood, gold, silver, and bronze, all of which
was destined for Dur-Sharrukin ; the quantity of silver
included among these
materials was so great
that its value fell to a
level with that of copper.
The interior of the build
ing, as in the case of the
old Chaldean palaces,
was separated into two
well - marked divisions.
The larger of these was
used by the king in his
public capacity, and to
this the nobles and sol
diers, and even the com
mon people, were admitted under certain conditions and on
certain days prescribed by custom. The outer court was
lined on three sides by warehouses and depots, in which
were stored the provisions, commodities, and implements
required for the host of courtiers and slaves who depended
on the sovereign for support. Each room had, as may
still bo seen, its own special purpose. There were cellars
for wine and oil, with their rows of large oblong jars ;
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plan by Thomas, in Place.
PLAX OF THE EXCAVATED PORTIONS OF THE
PALACE AT DUB-SIIAKRUKIN. 1
THE ROYAL APARTMENTS AT DUR-SHARRUK1X 405
then there were store-rooms for implements of iron, which
Place found full of rusty helmets, swords, pieces of armour,
maces, and ploughshares ; a little further on were rooms
for the storage of copper weapons, enamelled bricks, and
precious metals, and the king s private treasury, in which
were hidden away the spoils of the vanquished or the
regular taxes paid by his subjects ; some fine bronze lions
ONE OF TIIE BKOXZE LIOXS FROM DUR-SHARRUKtN. 1
of marvellous workmanship and lifelike expression were
found still shut up here. The kitchens adjoined the
pantries, and the stables for horses and camels com
municated direct with the coach-houses in which the
state chariots were kept, while the privies were discreetly
hidden in a secluded corner. On the other side, among
the buildings occupying the southern angle of the court
yard, the menials of the palace lived huddled together,
each family quartered in small, dark rooms. The royal
apartments, properly so called, stood at the back of
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Louvre.
406
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
these domestic offices, facing the south-east, near the
spot where the inclined plane debouched on to the city
ramparts. The monumental entrance to these apartments
was guarded, in accordance with religious custom, by a
company of winged bulls ; behind this gate was a lawn,
then a second gate, a corridor and a grand quadrangle in
r>*
A HUNTING EXPEDITION IN THE WOODS NEAR DUR-SHARRUKIN. 1
the very centre of the palace. The king occupied a suite
of some twenty rooms of a rather simple character ; here
he slept, ate, worked, and transacted the greater part of his
daily business, guarded by his eunuchs and attended by his
ministers and secretaries. The remaining rooms were apart
ments of state, all of the same pattern, in which the crowd
of courtiers and employes assembled while waiting for a
private audience or to intercept the king as he passed.
A. subdued light made its way from above through narrow
1 Drawn by Faucher-Guclin, from a drawing by Flandin, in Botta.
INTERIOR DECORATIONS OF THE PALACE 407
windows let into the massive arches. The walls were lined
to a height of over nine feet from the floor with endless bas-
reliefs, in greyish alabaster, picked out in bright colours, and
illustrating the principal occupations in which the sovereign
spent his days, such as the audiences to ambassadors,
hunting in the woods, sieges and battles. A few brief
inscriptions interspersed above pictures of cities and
persons indicated the names of the vanquished chiefs or
the scenes of the various events portrayed ; detailed
descriptions were engraved on the back of the slabs
facing the brick wall against which they rested. This
was a precautionary measure, the necessity for which
had been but too plainly proved by past experience.
Every one the king himself included well knew that
some day or other Dur-Sharrukin would be forsaken just
as the palaces of previous dynasties had been, and it
was hoped that inscriptions concealed in this manner
would run a better chance of escaping the violence of
man or the ravages of time ; preserved in them, the
memory of Sargon would rise triumphant from the ruins.
The gods reigned supreme over the north-east angle
of the platform, and a large irregular block of buildings
was given up to their priests ; their cells contained nothing
of any particular interest, merely white walls and black
plinths, adorned here and there with frescoes embellished
by arabesques, and pictures of animals and symbolical
genii. The ziggurdt rose to a height of some 141 feet
above the esplanade. It had seven storeys dedicated
to the gods of the seven planets, each storey being painted
in the special colour of its god the first white, the second
408
SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
black, the third purple, the fourth blue, the fifth a
vermilion red ; the sixth was coated with silver, and the
seventh gilded. There was no chamber in the centre
of the tower, but a small gilded chapel probably stood
at its base, which was used for the worship of Assur
or of Ishtar. The harem, or Btt-riduti, was at the
southern corner of the enclosure, almost in the shadow
^ of the ziggur&t. Sargon had pro
bably three queens when he
founded his city, for the harem
is divided into three separate
apartments, of which the two
larger look out on the same
quadrangle. Two courses
of enamelled bricks ran
along the base of the
facade, while statues
were placed at intervals
againt the wall, and the
bay of the gateway was framed by two bronze palm trees
gilt : the palm being the emblem of fruitfulness and grace,
no more fitting decoration could have been chosen for
this part of the building. The arrangement was the same
in all three divisions : an ante-chamber of greater width
than length ; an apartment, one half of which was open
to the sky, while the other was covered by a half-dome,
and a flight of twelve steps, leading to an alcove in
which stood a high wooden couch. The queens and
princesses spent their lives in this prison-like bU-riduti :
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in Place.
THE ZIGGURAT AT DUR-SHARRUKIN. 1
THE HAREM OF DUR-SHARRUKIN
409
their time was taken up with dress, embroidery, needle
work, dancing and singing, the monotony of this routine
being relieved by endless quarrels, feuds, and intrigues.
The male children remained in the harem until the age
of puberty, when they
left it in order to con
tinue their education as
princes and soldiers
under the guidance of
their father. 1 This group
of buildings was com
pleted by a park, in
which cedarsof Lebanon,
pines, cypresses, gazelles,
stags, wild asses and
cattle, and even lions,
were acclimatised, in ad
dition to a heterogeneous
collection of other trees
and animals. Here, the
king gave himself up to
the pleasures of the chase, and sometimes invited one or
other of his wives to come thither and banquet or drink
with him.
After Mita s surrender, Sargon had hoped to be allowed
to finish building his city in peace ; but an ill-advised
SECTION OF A BEDROO^I IX THE IIAKEJI. 2
An inscription of Assur-bani-pal, gives a summary description of the
life led in the harem by heirs to the throne, and describes generally the kind
of education received by them from their earliest childhood.
; Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in Place,
410
SARGOX II. OP ASSYRIA
movement in Kuinmukk obliged him to don his harness
again (708 B.C.). King Mutallu had entered into an
alliance with Argistis of Urartu, and took the field with
his army ; but when details of what had taken place in
Chaldsea reached his ears, and he learnt the punishment
that had been inflicted on the people of Bit-Yakin, his
MAIN DOOR OF THE HAREM AT DUR-SIIARRUKIX. 1
courage failed him. He fled without waiting for the
Assyrians to appear, and so great was his haste that he
had no time to take his family and treasure with him.
Sargon annexed his kingdom, placed it under the govern
ment of the tartan, and incorporated into his own the
whole army of Kummukh, including 150 chariots, 1500
horsemen, 20,000 archers, and 10,000 pikemen. In the
following year (707) his vassal Dalta died, leaving two
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in Place.
CONSECRATING A NEW CITY 411
sons, Nibi and Ishpabara, both of whom claimed possession
of the fief of Ellipi ; Nibi appealed to Elam for help, and
Ishpabara at once turned for aid to Assyria. Sargon sent
him a body of troops, commanded by seven of his generals,
while Shutruk-nakhnnta lent his protege 4500 bowmen ;
Ishpabara won the day, took the city of Marubishti by
storm, and compelled his brother to take refuge in Susiau
territory. The affair was over so quickly that it caused
practically no delay in the completion of the works at
the capital. The consecration of a new city necessitated
the observance of a host of complicated ceremonies, which
extended over several months. First of all provision had
to be made for its religious worship ; the omens were
consulted in order to determine which of the gods were
to be invoked, and, when this was decided, there followed
the installation of the various statues and arks which were
to preside over the destinies of the city and the priests to
whom they were intrusted ; the solemn inauguration took
place on the 22nd day of Tisri, in the year 707 B.C., and
from that day forward Dur-Sharrukln occupied the rank
officially assigned to it among the capitals of the empire.
Sargon, however, did not formally take up his residence
within it till six months later, on the 6th day of lyyar,
706. He must, by this time, have been advancing in
years, and even if we assume him to have been a young
man when he ascended the throne, after the sixteen years
of bodily fatigue and mental worry through which he had
passed since coming into power, he must have needed
repose. He handed over the government of the northern
provinces to his eldest son Sin-akhe-irba, better known to
412 SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA.
us as Sennacherib, whom he regarded as his successor ;
to him he transferred the responsibility of keeping watch
over the movements of the Mannai, of Urartu, and of the
restless barbarians who dwelt beyond the zone of civilised
states on the banks of the Halys, or at the foot of the
distant Caucasus : a revolt among the Tabal, in 706, was
promptly suppressed by his young and energetic deputy.
As for Sargon himself, he was content to retain the direct
control of the more pacific provinces, such as Babylon, the
regions of the Middle Euphrates, and Syria, and he doubt
less hoped to enjoy during his later years such tranquillity
as was necessary to enable him to place his conquests on
a stable basis. The envious fates, however, allowed him
but little more than twelve short months : he perished
early in 705 B.C., assassinated by some soldier of alien birth,
if I interpret rightly the mutilated text which furnishes
us with a brief mention of the disaster. Sennacherib was
recalled in haste from the frontier, and proclaimed king
immediately on his arrival, thus ascending unopposed to
the throne on the 12th day of Ab. His father s body had
been left unburied, doubtless in order that he might verify
with his own eyes the truth of what had been told him
concerning his death, and thus have no ground for harbour
ing suspicions that would have boded ill for the safety of
the late king s councillors and servants. He looked upon
his father s miserable ending as a punishment for some
unknown transgression, and consulted the gods to learn
what it was that had aroused their anger, refusing to
authorise the burial within the palace until the various
expiatory rites suggested by the oracle had been duly
DEATH OF SARGON HIS CHARACTER 413
performed. 1 Thus mysteriously disappeared the founder of
the mightiest dynasty that ever ruled in Assyria, perhaps
even in the whole of Western Asia. At first sight, it
would seem easy enough to determine what manner of
+
man he was and to what qualities he owed his greatness,
thanks to the abundance of documents which his con
temporaries have bequeathed to us; but when we come
to examine more closely, we soon find the task to be by no
means a simple one. The inscriptions maintain so discreet
a silence with regard to the antecedents of the kings
before their accession, and concerning their education and
private life, that at this distance of time we cannot succeed
in forming any clear idea as to their individual tempera
ment and character. The monuments record such achieve
ments as they took pride in, in terms of uniform praise
which conceal or obliterate the personality of the king in
question ; it is always the ideal Assyrian sovereign who
is held up for our admiration under a score of different
names, and if, here and there, we come upon some trait
which indicates the special genius of this or that monarch,
we may be sure that the scribe has allowed it to slip in
by accident, quite unconscious of the fact that he is thus
affording us a glimpse of his master s true character and
1 This is my interpretation of the text published and translated by
Winckler. Winckler sees in it the account of a campaign during which
Sargon was killed by mountaineers, as was Cyprus in later times by the
Massagetae ; the king s body (according to him) remained unburied, and was
recovered by Sennacherib only after considerable delay. In support of his
version of this event Winckler cites the passage in Isa. xiv. 4-20a, which he
takes as having been composed to exult over the death of Sargon, and then
afterwards adapted to the death of a king of Babylon.
414: SARGON II. OF ASSYRIA
disposition. A study of Sargon s campaigns as revealed
in his annals will speedily convince us that he was some
thing more than a fearless general, with a keen eye to
plunder, who could see nothing in the most successful
expedition but a means of enriching his people or adding
to the splendours of his court. He was evidently con
vinced that certain nations, such as Urartu and Elam,
would never really assimilate with his own subjects, and,
in their case, he adhered strictly to the old system of
warfare, and did all he could to bring about their ruin ;
other nations, on the contrary, he regarded as capable of
amalgamation with the Assyrians, and these he did his
best to protect from the worst consequences of their re
bellion and resistance. He withdrew them from the
influence of their native dynasties, and converted their
territories into provinces under his own vigilant administra
tion, and though he did not scruple to send the more
turbulent elements among them into exile, and did his
best to weaken them by founding alien colonies in their
midst, yet he respected their religion, customs, and laws,
and, in return for their obedience to his rule, guaranteed
them an equitable and judicious government. Moreover,
he took quite as much interest in their well-being as in
his own military successes, and in the midst of his heroic
struggles against Eusas and Merodach-baladan he con
trived to find time for the consideration of such prosaic
themes as the cultivation of the vine and of corn ; he
devoted his attention to the best methods of storing wine,
and sought to prevent " oil, which is the life of man and
healeth wounds, from rising in price, and the cost of
SARGON S CHARACTER 415
sesame from exceeding that of wheat." We seem to see
in him, not only the stern and at times cruel conqueror,
but also the gracious monarch, kind and considerate to
his people, and merciful to the vanquished when policy
permitted him to indulge his natural leaning to clemency.
END OF VOL. VII.
INDEX
Adaush, 20
Agusi. See Blt-Agusi
Ahab, 103, 105, 113-115, 126, 335
Ahaz, 239, 291, 328, 359
Ahaz appeals to Assyria, 282, 285
Ahaziah (of Israel), 117-123
Ahaziah (of Judah), 126, 127
Akhiababa, 25
Akhuni, 49, 93-101
Akkadians, 302
Allabria, 367, 368, 382
Amadai (Madai). See Medes
Amanos. See Arnanus
Ainanus (or Ainauos), 117, 119, 132, 163,
317
Amaziah, 182, 184, 239
Ambaridis (Ambaris), 383
Amika (of Zaniru), 35-39
Ainmibaal (Prince of Bit-Zainaui), 30,
41, 47
Ammon (or Ammonites), 103, 106, 154,
291 327
Amon, Priests of, 253, 261, 322, 324
Ainorites, The, 62
Amos (the prophet), 209, 210
Anshan, or Auzan, 345, 347
Aramaean tribes, 304
Aramaeans, The, 65, 214, 233, 305, 308,
333
Arame (King of Bit- Agusi), 104, 112, 119,
137
Aramg (King of Nairi), 91, 99, 101
Ararat, Mount, 79
Arashtua, 34, 35
Araziash, 150
Arbela, 144, 297
Argistis I. (ste also Urartu), 161, 162,
165, 175, 235
Argistis II., 380, 410
Aribua, 65
Aridi, 92
Arma~n, 108
Armenia, 151
Arpad, 51, 150, 166, 179, 222, 225, 305,
355
Arpad, Assyrian campaign around, 224
Arrapkha, 144, 168
Arvad, 62, 104, 106, 126
Arzashkun, 100
Ashdod, 385
Asherah, The, 201
Asia Minor, 179, 298
Asianic steppes, 180
Assur (the city), 143, 168
Assur (the god), 111, 143, 234
Assur, Fighting for the king, 1
Assur (Assyria), Limmu of, 297
Assur-dain-pal, 144-147
Assurd,n II., 4
Assurdan III., 167
Assurirba, 3, 48
Assur-nadinakhe II., 4
Assur-nazir-pal, Frontispiece, 8, 18, 19,
31
Campaign on the Euphrates, 43, 44
Character of, 75
Extent of his empire, 63
Flotilla of, 45
Mediterranean reached by, 61
Obelisk of, 3
Stele of, 68
Winged bulls of, 70
Assur-nirari III., 169, 179
Assyria (or Assur), 162, 351
Art of, 70, 400
Cities of, 143
First encounter of with Egypt, 353
Hebrew ideas of, 219
Limits of, 177
Limini in, 297
Losses in Syria, 165
Map of, 299
State of, under Assur-nazir-pal, 30
Assyrian attack on a fortress, 175
Assyrian battering-ram, 12, 13
Assyrian besieging engines, 11, 12
Assyrian cavalry, 9, 11, 290
Assyrian carrying an inflated skin, 339
Assyrian finance, 313
Assyrian head, Ivory, 171
Assyrian militia, 313
IXDEX
Assyrian provincial administrators, 310,
311
Assyrian soldier, crossing a river, 2
Assyrian war-chariot, 55
Athaliah, 114, 152, 193
Atlila (or Dur-Assur), 38
Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah, 185, 231,
279
Azriyahu, 229, 231
B
Baalirasi, Stele at, 130
Babylon, 142, 148, 149, 341, 347, 392
Babylonian army, 305
Babylonian Canon, The, 5
Babylonian empire, 302
Balawat, Bronze gates of, 90-93, 101,
144, 314
Baqani, 110
Bau-akhiddin (King of Babylon), 149
Bazi, 5
Bedawin, The, 371
"Bel, Taking the hands of," 15, 295,
340, 392
Bel-harran-beluzur, Stele of, 320
Bel-Merodach, or Marduk, Statue of,
347
Bel-nadinshumu, 347
Benhadad I., 104, 113, 335
Benhadad II. (Adadidri or Hadadezer),
103, 115-120, 124 (death of), 125,
335
Benhadad III. (see also Mari), 154, 181
Bethel, 210
Biainas (or Biaina), 90, 158, 380
Bit-Adini (in Bit-Dakkuri), 109, 110
Bit-Adini (in Mesopotamia), 45-49, 93,
98-102, 118, 119
Bit-Agusi (lakhanu), 51, 97, 104, 117,
167, 180, 224, 228, 355
Bit-Am ukkani, 109, 110, 293, 294
Bit-Bagaia, Town of, 371
Bit-Bakhiani, 47, 49
Bit-Dakkuri (or Bit-Dakuri), 109, 390
Bit-Khalupi, 23, 24
Bit-Shalaui, 109
Bit-Shalli, 109
Bit-Yakin, 109, 110, 304, 342, 343, 410
Bit-Zamani, 41, 65, 138. See also Am-
mibaal
Black obelisk, The, 105, 135, 141, 189
Bocchorsi (Bukunirinif), 322, 373
Borsippa, 149
Borsippa, Canal of, 392
Bubastis, Festival hall at, 245
Bubastis, Temple of, 243
Burr am man, 41
Byblos, 133, 230
Calah, 169, 297, 340, 397, 403
Calah, Palace of, 66, 67, 73, 75
Cappadocia, 366, 383
Carchemish, 50, 59, 94-98, 181, 228
Carchemish, an Assyrian prefecture, 365
Chaldeea, 401. See also Karduniasb
Chalybes, 180
Cilicia, 94, 135, 138, 366, 383, 396
Cilician empire, 50
Cimmerians, The, 381
Ccele-Syria, 167
Cossseans, The, 4, 301, 347
Cyprus submits to Sargon, 395
D
Dagara, 32, 33
Damascus, 62, 103, 105, 111, 119, 124,
126, 142, 166, 181, 182, 185, 286,
305, 334, 354
Fall of kingdom of, 287
List of kings of, 289
Map of kingdom of, 283
Damdamusa, 27, 28, 65, 75
Damunu, 177
Dayaini, 161
Dayan-assur, 138-140
Delta, The, 253-255
Demavend (Bikni), 217
Demavend, Peaks of, 218
Dhibon (Dibon), 120, 122, 186
Dhuspas, 159. See also Van
Dirrseans, The, 40
Durilu, 353
Dur-Ladinu, 390, 391
Dur-papsukal, 148
Dur-Sharrukin, 397, 402-408
Palace at, 403, 404
Plan of, 402
Dur-Yakin, 342, 344, 394, 395
E
E,mukin-shumu, 5, 6
Edom (see also Idumea), 154, 231, 291,
386
Edomites, The, 184
Egypt, Brook of (Wady-el-Arish), 182,
360
First encounter of, with Assyria, 357
Isaiah s prophecy against, 385
Map of middle Egypt, 262
Egyptian altar, 203
Egyptian ivory from Nineveh, 171, 337
Elam, 343, 347, 351, 367, 393, 401
Elamites, 302
Elealeh, 186
INDEX
Elephants as tribute, 137
Elijah, 125
Elisha, 125, 183, 206
Ellipi, 367, 382, 411
Eponym Canon, 7
Ethiopia, 254, 386
Ethiopian empire in Egypt, 275
Ethiopian kings, The, 255
Ethiopian types, 200
Ethiopians, The, 255
Etius (Etiaus), 165, 179, 380
Eulbar-shakinshumi, 4, 5
Euphrates, The, 43, 342
Ezion-geber, 121, 188
,F
Fariua (or Paripa), 98
G
Garnbuia (or Gambulu), The, 177, 351,
388, 389
Gananatg, 107, 168
Garparuda, 104
Gath, 154
Gaza, 336, 355, 357
Gebel-Barkal, 256
Gilead, 151, 305
Gilzan, 20, 38, 92, 142, 156
Gilzan, Tribute from, 100-103
Gizilbunda, 146, 150
Gordyaean mountains, 79, 91, 140, 156
Gozan, 150
Gurgum, 51, 93, 104, 181, 223, 228, 384
H
Habardip, 347, 348
Hadad, The god, 57
Hadadezer (or Adadidri). See Benhadad
II.
Hadrach (Katarika), 151, 166, 185, 230
Halebiyeh, Gorge of, 43, 45
Hauiath, 61, 103, 105, 117, 126, 181, 185,
354. 370, 372
Hamath, Captive from, 151
Hannon of Gaza, 355, 357
Harilu, The, 177
Harran, 143, 144
Harstisit, 253
Hauran, The, 130
Hazael, 125, 151, 182, 335
Hebrew literature, 195
Hebrew merchants, 188
Hebrews, 187, 335
Dress of, 190
Industry and commerce of, 187
Political organization of, 192
Trade of, 187
Heliopolis, 245
Heracleopolis, 246, 264
Herinon, Mount, 288
Hermopolis, 246
Hermopolis, Temple of, 263
Heshbon, 186
Hittite, 30
Hittite empire, 165
Hittite states, 62, 162
Hittites, The, 82, 333. See also Khati
and Patina
Hittites, Submission of, 59
Horses as tribute, 314, 315
Hosea (the prophet), 211, 231
Hoshea, King of Israel, 289, 327
lanzu, The, 119
lasbuki, 94
laubidi of Hamath, 354, 357
laubidi flayed alive, 356
laudi, 166
Idumea, 103. See also Edom
Ilauiu, 36, 37
Imgur-Bel (Balawat), 74
Iranzu, 362
Irba-ramman, 4
Irkanata (Arqanatu), 103
Isaiah, the prophet, 279, 328, 359, 385
Isaiah s prophecy against Egypt, 386
Ishpuiuis (Ushpina), 156-160, 235
Israel, 103, 116, 153
Fall of, 333
Kingdom of, 151
Tribute to Shalinaneser, 132
Israelite captives, 152
Israelites, The, 326
Bas-relief of, 189
Itua, 178
Izalla, 27, 47, 65
Izirtu. See Zirtu
Jehoahaz (of Israel), 153, 182
Jehoash (of Israel), 182, 183
Jehoram (of Judah), 114, 123
Jehoshaphat, 114, 115, 121, 123, 188
Jehu, 127-129, 142, 151, 153, 207
Jehu, Tribute of, 131
Jeroboam II., 185, 231, 278
Jerusalem, 128, 281, 327
Besieged by Eezin, 241
Jewish concepts of God, 198, 199
Jewish histories, 197
Jewish priesthood, 201
Jewish prophets, 205
Jezebel, 128
INDEX
Jezreel, 129
Joash (of Judah), 152, 153, 182
Joram (of Israel), 116, 120, 123, 127
Jotham (of Judah), 231, 239, 279
Judah, Kingdom of, 113, 114, 152, 153,
359
Judah, Kings of
Subjects of, 190, 191
Their mercenaries, 192
K
Kakzi, 33
Kalakh. See Calah
Kalda, The (or Aramaeans), 4, 106, 148,
150, 177, 215, 289, 296, 304, 345,
351, 387, 393
Kalda refugees, 343
Kaldu, A, 294
Kammanu (Coinana), 383
Karduniash (or Babylonia), 149, 214,
304, 347, 395
Karomama, Statuette of Queen, 175
Kashshu-nadinakhe, 5
Kashta, 322-325
Kelishin, Stele of, 156, 157
Khabur, The, 22
Khaldi, The, of Urartu, 82
Khaldis (the Urartian god), 86, 87, 160
Khalludush, 346
Khalybes, The, 83
Khalzidipkha, 27
Khamanu, 42
Kharkhar, 371
Kharu (see also Israel, Judah, Ammon,
and Moab), 243
Khatarika, 151. See also Hadrach
Khali, The, 48, 49, 82, 111, 119, 157,
180, 181, 362-365. See also Hittites
Khati, Chariot of, 54
Khati, Twelve kings of, 103, 126
Khindanu, 26, 43/45
Khindaru, 177
Khirki, 20
Khmunu, 246
Submission of, 269
Khninsu (Heracleopolis Ahnas), 246
Khninsu, 246, 254, 258
Khuinsu, Temple at, 249
Khubushkia, 20, 38, 92, 101, 140, 150,
156, 162, 179, 371, 377
Khudun, 34, 35
Khumban-igash, 351
Khumban-numena, 345
Kinalua, 139, 167, 228
Kir-hareseth, or Ker-Moab (Kerak), 122
Kirkhi, 20, 30
Kir of Moab (same as Kir-hareseth), 186
Kirruri, 19, 20
Kishisim, City of, 369
Kissirtu, 34, 35
Kition, or Citium (Amathus), 396
Kui, The, 93, 94, 106, 132, 137, 181, 371,
393, 395
Kummukh, 23, 39, 51, 98, 181, 222, 384,
410
Kunulua, 58
Kurkh, Monolith of, 143
Kurkhi, 40
Kush, 386. See also Ethiopia
Kuta, 149
Kutur-nakhunta, 346
Labdudu, 177
Lachish (Tell-el-Hesy) , 185
Lalati (or Lulati), 93
Laqi, 26, 42, 45
Libnah, 124
Limmi, The, 297
Litau, 177
Liyan, 345
Lubarna, 52, 57-61
Lubarna II., 139
Lullume, 32
M
Malamir, Bas-relief of, 349
Malaniir, Princes of, 349
Manda, The, 382
Mannai, The (the Minni), 81, 90, 140,
150, 155, 157, 164, 363, 366, 368, 371
Mansuati (or Mausuate), 151, 187
Marduk, 107
Marduk-abal-uzur, 142
Marduk-balatsu-ikbi (King of Babylon),
147, 148
Marduk-belusate, 107, 108
Marduk-mudammiq of Namri, 119
Marduk-uadin-shumu, 107-109
Mari (see also Benhadad III.), 154, 181
Mariru, 28
Mashauasha, The (Maxyes), 246
Matiatg, 39
Medes, The, 168, 363
Defeat of, by Sargon, 371
Media, 150, 216, 234, 298, 401
Map of, 216
Median town, 381
Mediterranean reached by Assur-nazir-
pal, 62
Megiddo, 128
Melitene, 104, 157, 223
Memphis, 246, 358
Captured by Pionkhi, 271
Menahem, 193, 232, 238, 278
Homage of, 233
INDEX
Meuuas, 156, 175, 235
Conquests of, 157
Merodach-baladan, or Marduk-abalidinna
(King of Babylon), 332, 343, 387,
393
Mesha (King of Moab), 120, 122
Mesha, Stele of, 122, 194
Mesopotamia, Map of, 44
Mg-Turnat (or Meturnat), 107, 147
Milicldu, 383, 384
Misi (or Misu), 146, 150
Misianda in the North (see also Misi),
363
Mita (of Mushki), 370, 395, 409
Mitatti, 362-368, 377
Moab, 121, 189, 291, 327, 385
Moab, delivered from Israel, 122
Moabite stone, 123, 193
Mushezib-marduk, The, submit to Sar-
gon, 395
Mushku (or Mushki), The, 23, 82, 393,
394
Mutton II. (or Mattan), 289, 291
Muzazir, 87, 140, 156, 379
Muzri, 137, 142
Muzri, Tribute of, 137
N
Naaman, 125
Nabonazir (or Nabunazir), King of Baby
lon, 215, 292
Naboshumishkun, 6
Nabu-baliddin, 5, 63, 107, 215
Nairi, 7, 30, 31, 64, 99, 118
(Assur-nazir-pal s First Campaign in),
25
(Assur-nazir-pal s Second Campaign
in), 27
(Assur-nazir-pal s Third Campaign in),
29
(Assur-nazir-pal s Fourth Campaign
in), 31
lanzu of, 370
Map of, 21
Namri, 119, 135, 140, 150, 163, 164, 169,
216
NamrOti, 247, 250, 254, 263, 264, 275
Napata, 255
Ruins of, 255
Temple of Amon at, 257, 258
Nappigi, 99
Narmarratum, The, 342
Naram-sin, Bas-relief of, 348
Negub (tunnel of), 73
Nineveh, 143, 301, 340, 397
Ninip (patron of Calah), 68
Ninip-kudurusur, 6
Nirbu, 28, 29, 65, 162
Nishpi, 34
Nisibis, 144
Nomes, The seven, 253
Nummi (or Nimmi), 19
Nurramma~u (sheikh of Dagara), 32, 33.
39
O
Obelisk (Black). See Black
Oniri, 126, 194
Omri, Fall of the house of, 129
Orontes, 52
Osorkon I., 244, 245
Osorkon I., Statuette of, 242
Osorkon II., 244, 247, 250
Osorkon III., 253, 275
Oxyrrhynchos, Ruins of, 263
Palestine, 401
Paripa (or Farina), 98
Parsua (Parsuash), 135, 140, 150, 163 r
368
Patina, The, 52, 93, 94, 98, 104, 117,
139, 142, 166
Captivity of, 151
Gods of, 56
Submission of, 59
Tribute from, 105
Pefzaabastit, 254, 268, 275
Pekah, 239, 240, 278, 285
Persian Gulf, 342
Petubastis, King, 252, 253
Philistines, The, 153, 276, 285, 291, 326,
333, 385
Phoenicia, 103, 150
Cities of, 52, 61, 230, 285
Northern, 355
Phoenician alphabet, 195
Phoenician bowl with Egyptian decora
tion, 173
Phoenician intaglio, belonging to M. de
Rouge", 338
Phrygians, 180
Pionkhi, 261, 322
Pi6ukhi captures Memphis, 271
PiSnkhi invades Middle Egypt, 263
Pitru (Pethor), 99
Psamuti, 322, 355
Pukudu (or Puqudu), The (Pekod), 177,
293, 351, 389
Pul (or Pulu). See also Tiglath-pileser
III., 169
Qarqar, 105, 111, 356
Qarqar, Battle of, 106, 153
IXDEX
R
Ramman-nirari II., 4
Raninian-uirari III., 4, 149, 154, 178
Rainotk (Gilead), 115, 182
Raphia, 375
Raphia, Battle of, 357
Razappa. See Rezeph
Rezeph (Razappa), 297
Rezin II. (or Rezou), 232. 239, 240, 288
Fall of, 291
Homage of, 233
Rowaudiz, Stele of (see also Kelishin,
Stele of), 156
Rubuu, The, 178
Rusas I., 361, 362, 366, 367, 370
Ruua, The, 178
Sabaco (Shabaka), 325, 375, 384
Samalla, 52, 93-98, 104, 166, 181, 225,
229
Samalla, Gods of, 57
Samaria, 114, 124, 231, 327, 355
Egyptian faction in, 278
Fall of, 332
Revolt of, under Hosea, 327
Samsi-ramman IV., 145, 148, 149, 156
298
Samsi-rammau, Monolith of, 148
Sargon of Assyria, 334, 339
Bas-relief of, 334
Death of, 413
Defeats the Medes, 371
Glass vessel bearing name of, 336
Stele of, at Kition, 396
Sargon s conquest of Babylon, 391
Sargonicls, The, 340
Scythians, The, 382
Sennacherib (Sin-akhe-irba), 412
Sepharvaim (or Sibraim), 325
Shabaka. See Sabaco
Shabaku. See Sabaco
Shabarain. See Sepharvaim
Shadikanni, 24
Shalmaneser III. (known also as Shal-
maneser II.), 77, 89, 101, 297, 335
Building works of, 141
Campaigns of, 77, 137
In Syria, 116
In Urartu, 90
In Van, 91
War against Babylon, 107
Shalmaneser IV., 162, 185
Campaigns in Urartu, 103
Shalmaneser V. (Ululai), 169, 321, 331,
344
Sham ash -mudammiq, 6
Shapaluluine, 94, 98
Sharduris I., King of Urartu, 91
Sharduris II. (or Seduri), 138, 155, 213
221, 223, 234
Sharduris III., 178, 179
Sheshouq II., 252
Shianu (Sin) or Sianu, 103, 106
Shilauimshukamuna, 6
Shilkhak-inslmshinak, Brick of, 346
Shugunia, Prisoners from, 94
Shupria, 29
Shutruk-nakhunta I., 347, 348
Shutruk-nakhunta II., 389
Siamun, Sphinx of, 248
Sidon (see also Tyre), 133
Siloam, Hebrew inscription of, 241
Simashshikhu (or Simbarshiku). 4, 6
Simbarshikhu. See Simashshikhu
Sippara, 392
Sukhi, 42, 45, 64, 142
Sukhi, Country of, 142
Sumeriaus, 302
Suru, 25
Susa, 345
Susa, Kings of, 346
Syria, 8, 50, 151, 321, 401
Map of, 50
Northern, 63, 180, 228, 298, 366
Revolt of, 355
Tiglath-pileser III. s campaigns in, 288
Syrian armies, 55
Syrian arts, 55
Syrian religions, 55
Syrian states and civilisation, 51
Tabal, The, 82, 134, 180, 364, 382, 401,
412
Tafnakhti, 262, 273, 322
Tafnakhti s offerings, 276
TakelQti II., 250, 251
"Tarshish, Ship of," 121
Tartan, The, 138 ; of 2 Kings xviii. 17,
292 ; of Isaiah xx. 1, 385
Teisbas (Urartian god), 89
Tela or Tila (in Kirbu), 20, 28
Tentramu, 254
Thebes, 209, 255, 358
Thebes, Principality of, 247
Tiglath-pileser II., 4
Tiglath-pileser III. (or Pul), 166, 175,
192, 295, 310
Campaigns in Karduniash and Media,
215
Campaigns against Ukinzir, 293
In his chariot, 232
In Syria, 288
Takes Babylon, 295
INDEX
Tila. See Tela
Tilluli, 65
Toprah-Kaleh, 84, 85
Tukulti-uiuip, 27
Tukulti-ninip II., 7
Tul-Abni, 106
Tul-Barsip (capital of Bit-Adini), 46, 98,
99, 104, 112
Tulgarimmg, 383, 384
Turat, Quarries of, 134
Tushkhau, 29, 42, 65, 143, 144
Tyre, 130, 133
U
Ukinzir, 292, 294
Ukiuzir, Tiglath -pileser III., Campaigns
against, 293
Ullusunu, 367, 370, 377
Unki, 58, 166, 181, 228, 238, 305
Urartian empire, Close of, 379
Urartian stele, 164
Urartu, or Kingdom of Van (Armenia),
78, 81, 90, 99, 119, 138, 140, 142,
168, 228, 234, 362, 401
Assyrian conquest of, 237
Assyrian invasion of, 219
Civilisation of, 83
Expansion of, 181
Growth of, 155
In Syria, 218
Map of, 82
Shalmaneser III. in, 89
Shalmaneser IV., campaigns in, 163
Town in, 378
View of, 221
Uruiniah, Lake (Lower Sea of Nairi), 80 T
81, 102, 140, 156, 162, 163
Urzana, 379
Usauata, 106
Ushanat (Uznu), 104
Uzziah (see also Azariah), 279
Van, Lake (Upper Sea of Nairi), 80, 81,
100
Van, Lake, Gods of, 95
Van (or Dhuspas), 84, 160, 161
Citadel of, 161
View of, 235
Zab, the lesser (Zab Shupalu), 34, 178
Zab, the greater (Zabu Ilu), 15, 17, 73
Zamru. See Amika
Zamua, 32, 34, 35
Zaniua, Map of, 33
Zikartu, 363, 364, 368, 377
Zinjirli (or Sinjirli), 52
Column at, 318
Gates of, 226
Plan of, 226
Portico at, 316
Royal Castle of. 227
Zirtu (Izirtu), 140
Si
MASPERO, SIR G. C. C.
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